That is the concluding line of an essay by Canadian Somali, K’naan, published at the Huffington Post this morning. I had no intention of even mentioning the military strike on Somali pirates yesterday that resulted in the freedom of their American hostage Capt. Richard Phillips. Afterall, the mainstream media is all over the story and what more could I say; and other than the fact that we follow Somali refugee issues closely, it has nothing to do with what we write about. Or maybe it does?
After my initial jubilation about the Captain’s release and our stunning display of military might, approved by President Obama no less, I started wondering how the average Somali living in huge numbers* in some American cities was going to feel about teenagers blown away while they were being towed by the American Navy ship and in the midst of negotiations.
If you are now thinking that I’m getting soft by even giving any consideration to the “other side,” consider that we also know that al-Shabaab, an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization that wishes to “throw the west into hell” and bring about a worldwide caliphate does have operatives in the US. So, I am wondering if we are stepping up security wherever Americans interface with Somalis.
K’naan, a successful and westernized Somali immigrant, says that although he is critical of piracy, his viewpoint and presumably the average Somali immigrants viewpoint, is to blame the origin of the piracy on the West—on environmental degradation perpetrated by European countries on Somalia. Read the whole essay, but here is just a bit to see where he and many (how many?) other Somalis living in the west are likely coming from.
The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western Vessels, and the producing of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high.
It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is truly a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice.
In addition to al-Shabaab operatives in the US, we also have some common Somali criminals like those arrested in Minneapolis for shooting up a party a couple of weeks ago. Will that type of hoodlum see a moral justification and feel emboldened to take out his fury on the infidels? I hope Homeland Security is now gearing up for that possibility.
* For new readers, the US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.