This logic is an example of the ability of some in the West to trip over themselves to justify what someone in the Third World does (as long as that something is attacking America--that makes them "authentic"). Speaking of the "so-called pirates," Sharpton says:
They call themselves voluntary Coast Guards in Somalia, which may be more apt.
Al Sharpton is hardly alone in spouting this nonsense. It is a comforting belief for some on the left to condemn any forceful American response to the depredations of pirates. It follows from the true observation that Somalia lacks the ability to protect their territorial water and that there are those who take advantage of that lack of defense to illegally operate in Somali waters.
But to call the pirates a sort of voluntary coast guard is ludicrous.
If the pirates were merely chasing off or even nabbing illegal fishing vessels or ships dumping garbage, I could buy that line of reasoning. But if that is what the Somali "so-called pirates" were doing, we wouldn't call them "pirates," now would we? And the "voluntary coast guard" wouldn't be seizing vessels engaged in perfectly legal transit of international waters.
I mean, unless you want to tell be that our Coast Guard shoots up random ships and seizes innocent merchant ship crews and their legally operating vessels to hold for ransom in order to enforce our laws against illegal fishing and mineral extraction.
Voluntary self-delusion is probably more dangerous to our security in the long run than pirates are.
UPDATE: Inconvenient points from the "coast guard" itself:
A Somalian pirate chief has described himself as a Coastguard officer forced to defend his lawless country's coastline. The muslim sailor - known only as Boyah - said the trouble began with giant trawlers from China, Taiwan and South Korea which raided Somali fishing ground. ...
So then the 'Coastguard' moved in, headed by Boyah, hi-jacking three foreign fishing trawlers, keeping the catch and ransoming the crew. The next move in the chess game was taken by the fishing boat proprietors who used local warlords for protection who covered the trawlers with anti-aircraft guns fitted on ships.
That's when Boyah and the Coastguard decided on commercial shipping instead.
So you can't even blame the original illegal actions on the classic Western powers.
And while the Somalis (if they are to be believed) at first focused on the ships carrying out these illegal activities (and assuming that you count holding the crews for ransom is equivalent to a system of trials and fines), the "coast guard" moved on to unarmed commercial shipping when the original targets became too tough to face.
I'm sticking with the term "pirate."
