Our heartfelt thanks to Divinities of Choice for the    safe delivery of Captain Phillips and crew of the Maersk Alabama.

I’m surely not the first to nickname it the Maersk Obama, since this drama has been played out extremely well by his newly-minted executive staff, Hillary Clinton in particular.

He let her run with this and she done good. Her chutzpah and familiarity with high-tension public speaking, not to mention the warrior black pant-suit (pastels would be unthinkable at a time like this) flashed up two images for me.

First was gratification of seeing urgent decisions being made and deployment orders snappily issued, affecting people on distant oceans.

Reminiscent of the Kennedy era, well-groomed and powerful leaders stepping momentarily out of the Beltway cocktail-loop to put things right half a world away.

All good optics.

The other image isn’t so favorable, one which conjured up the hubris of Margaret Thatcher in the run-up to Britain’s invasion and despicable bullying of Argentina over Las Malvinas.  It was time for her to flex that military muscle and any excuse would do, even if it resulted in multiple acts of inhumanity including the reported sodomising of dozens of Argentinian soldier-cadets by British troops gone mad.

Different situations but they have this in common, they stink  of political expediency to the point where I wonder, was this temporary taming of Indian Ocean pirates laid out as a no-brainer for HRC when she accepted the job as Obama’s  Secretary?

Both situations have extensive history, it’s not as if something had flared up overnight. In the Falklands case, Britain had been repeatedly censured by international courts for dragging its feet on resolving the Falklands ownership issue. And the Maersk Alabama was apparently the thirtieth ship to be hijacked this year alone by Somalian pirates. This is not a breaking story.

The international community has long been aware of the risks run by commercial shipping in this area, and of the unimaginable poverty which underpins it. It is also aware that the powerful and increasingly militarised nations care nothing for Africa, leaving the burden of care and compassion to religious and charity-organisations.

Bottom line: this pirate-peepshow is a far better bang for the US propaganda buck than its continuing,  insane and illegal invasions of Muslim countries.

Well done, USA.

(I am now withdrawing my tongue from my cheek….)