Captain Phillips update

Yeah! Captain Phillips was freed by US Navy Seals earlier today. After the long standoff, an officer decided Phillips was in imminent danger in accordance with the criteria President Obama set up. He came to this conclusion after someone saw a pirate point an AK at the captain's back. No details are really known about the operation except that snipers were somehow involved which leads me to believe that there is perhaps something that the navy wants to hide, at least for now. I'll stay updated when I learn anything new.

Somali Hostage Crisis

As I turn on the TV every day for the last few days, I see images of the ships off the Somali coast. Recently, pirates attempted to seize a Maersk ship from the crew. They failed to gain control after the Captain of the ship showed outstanding leadership prowess and ordered his crew to a safe room. The crew was later able to overpower the pirates and captured one of them. Unfortunately, Captain Phillips was captured by the pirates and after a failed attempt to trade hostages, the crew was left without a captive and the captain remained in the hands of the pirates. The captain made an unsuccessful attempt to escape while U.S. Navy ships surround the small lifeboat he is held in. The whole world awaits news to see how this will end while I wonder how we got in this situation.
Pirates have been attacking ships off the coast of Somalia for years, though the U.S. has been lucky enough not to have citizens taken captive before. But at some level, we all knew it was possible. To be fair, the government has been taking efforts to stop pirating in that area, but clearly not as much effort as was needed.
Perhaps the reasoning for not stopping the attacks was political. After all, President Bush was caught up in a very unpopular war that had a root justification of stopping a potential security threat. President Obama also has refused comment on the ongoing crisis. He has placed himself in a very precarious position. Again and again on the campaign trail, he vowed to tackle domestic problems and not interfere in the workings of other countries unless reason demanded it. But it seems this time trouble has come to us. These are the only times it seems that our country takes action: after the problem has developed to such a point that it can no longer be ignored. In congress, the bills that are passed nearly all have to do with recent news. After the attack of a chimpanzee on the owner, congress passed a bill that made interstate chimp transport illegal. Yet there has almost never been a bill intended to solve a future crisis. So as the U.S. Navy tries to figure out how to solve this problem, hopefully our government can also see that sometimes problem-solving should be preventative.