The problem continues… pirates brazenly attacked another U.S. ship just days after Captain Phillips’ rescue, and many other ships continue to be hijacked with every passing day.

Last year, Somali pirates carried out over 100 attacks on ships traveling around the Horn of Africa.  Currently, there are 17 captured ships and more than 250 hostages awaiting ransom, not afforded the kind of spectacular rescue that saved Captain Phillips’ life – or the tragic one that left Florent Lemaçon dead.  Captured ships have included massive oils tankers, and ships carrying caches of expensive weapons and ammo.

Unveiling a four-point plan last week, Secretary of State Clinton announced she is bringing together the State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department and intelligence community members “to consider recent events and potential responses,” and is calling for prosecution of pirates (the teenage ringleader of the attack on the Marsk, captured by US Navy forces, will be facing trial in a New York court) and the largely symbolic act of “freezing” pirates’ assets – a very difficult thing to do, since the pirates operate in an unregulated economy in a country that hasn’t had a stable government in nearly two decades.

Clinton said the administration will send an envoy to an April 23 Somali donors’ conference in Brussels.  With no effective central government since 1991, the country has become a safe haven for pirates, with no functional police force and easily bribed officials.  In the face of rampant poverty and few viable options for making a living, too many young Somalis are turning to piracy, and the Brussels conference intends to address all these root causes.

“The solution to Somali piracy includes improved Somali capacity to police their own territory,” she said, adding that the United States “does not make concessions or ransom payments to pirates.”

The reality however is that these ransom demands, sometimes as high as $3 million, are generally paid by U.S. shipping companies and considered a part of the cost of doing business in the region.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the continued willingness to pay these ransoms is hurting our ability to fight the Somali pirates.

Clinton spoke last week of “hot pursuit,” referencing a policy authorized by the U.N. last December but largely undiscussed in America – going after pirate bases in Somalia.  But after President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at nation-building in 1993 which left 19 Americans and over 1,000 Somalis dead, and the horrors of the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006, Americans have little desire for another fight for Mogadishu.

Not surprisingly, Gates has recommended a civilian plan focused on restoring stability in concert with any military action.  He was adamant that until the situation is Somalia is improved, “we can put a lot in jail, and we can kill a lot, but there’ll still be more.”  Further, Gates is advocating a more flexible, lightweight military approach to the pirate problem; “As we saw last week, you don’t necessarily need a billion-dollar ship to chase down a bunch of teenage pirates.”

Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa, covered with tiny villages and ports, making naval control a near impossibility.  But while the solution obviously cannot be purely military, this is a real and growing problem that will require intervention from the U.S. as well as the international community.  Perhaps we can encourage China to use its growing navy to spend more time fighting piracy and less time harassing our ships.

But we should make no bones about it – piracy is terrorism.  Despite the lack of religious extremism on the part of the criminals,  the problem is the same.  Exploitative chicken-hawks use and abuse impoverished youths for their own twisted benefit, and we often pay the price.

Thomas Jefferson understood we cannot tolerate piracy, and so must Barack Obama.

“We understand the concerns of our allies in the international community. Those concerns may be out of an inappropriate or not so good translation of the law or a misinterpretation of this.”

According to Reuters, the law requires women to “fulfill the sexual desires of her husband,” and mandates that a wife must have sex with her husband at least once every four months.

While parts of the law make definite forward progress from the days of the Sunni Taliban government, it has been widely viewed by the international community as shameful policy with no place in a modern world.

Some have decried Karzai’s signing of the law as a political maneuver to pander to the Shi’ite population in the upcoming August 20 elections.

It’s difficult to comprehend how this law could be misinterpreted or mistranslated.  I think this boils down to one of those “our culture is different” cop-outs.  The idea is that somehow we, as westerners, can’t understand the complexities of a religiously-motivated law that denies women their freedom.

Far be it from me to declare that some people are “not ready for freedom,” but even democracy can facilitate tyranny when there are not sufficient constitutional protections of individual liberties.  Our attempts to export democracy to the Muslim world will continue to fail unless we can first export our recognition of basic human rights.

Obama, in his condemnation of the Afghan law at the NATO summit in France, has said that “while improving conditions in Afghanistan is a commendable goal, people need to remember that the primary reason that U.S. troops are fighting there is to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.”  I applaud much of the fresh thinking that Obama’s administration has brought to the Afghanistan-Pakistan problem, but this to me is too reminiscent of Secretary of State Clinton’s recent statements about human rights in China.

Perhaps our priorities have gotten a little out of line since the days when Americans declared, by the pen and the gun, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Maybe if we acted like those rights applied to everyone, not just us, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about terrorist attacks on the United States or financing endless military occupations in foreign countries.

Karzai is flat wrong on this one, and needs to be held to account by the global community.  Even if it means losing his upcoming election, he has to step up as a Muslim leader in the 21st century and declare that Afghanistan will not allow such a barbaric law to go on the books.

It’s tempting to believe that the president has been consistently giving short “no” answers every time this question comes up simply because it is a political minefield to tread across.  For a first term president, openly seeking to reverse a drug policy that has been virtually unchanged in over 70 years is a risky move.  He seems to be a man who understands that lasting changes take patience and hard work to accomplish.

As noted recently, Obama’s approach to the war on drugs is appearing to show signs of a gentle path towards decriminalization or at least tolerance of marijuana.  The nomination of Gil Kerlikowske as “drug czar,” and Eric Holder’s statements about allowing states to determine medicial marijuana policy seem to be moves in the right direction, while not expressly advocating legalization.

Unfortunately, it is unclear which marijuana policy we will actually get; the one where individual states are allowed to set their own drug policies that has spurred movements in California and Oregon, or the one where the president glibly belittles the online audience – whose interaction he encouraged – for believing this is an important issue that needs a more nuanced discussion in Washington than “just say no.”

In spite of Attorney General Holder’s recent statements, DEA agents raided a licensed medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco this week, confusing those of us who have been watching this story with some modicum of hope.  It remains to be seen how much the federal approach to marijuana will actually change.

With over 20 million arrests for marijuana in the last 45 years, and an estimated $77 billion in lost taxes and wasted spending every year on an endless “war,” the time has come to have some serious debate and find a reasonable middle ground on this issue.

Arizona’s attorney general is talking potential legalization, and living in a border state he recognizes that this is not just an American problem.  He says that over 75% of the money that Mexican drug cartels take in comes from marijuana, most of that from the United States.  Secretary of State Clinton acknowledged U.S. complicity in the recent violence in Mexico this week, citing our “insatiable demand” for illegal drugs.  Yet in the face of all of this, President Obama laughs at the idea of eliminating the major source of funding for these criminal organizations.

“Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”
-President George Washington, on cannabis

“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.”
-President Thomas Jefferson, on cannabis

“When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.”
-President Barack Obama, on cannabis

“I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.”
-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on public political pressure

CNN is reporting that NORML’s fundraising has quadrupled in the 24 hours following the president’s dismissive response.  If there’s ever going to be a serious debate, much less a change in policy, it will only come as a result of We, The People making them do it.

The Obama administration wants a clean slate after the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, and Clinton arrived with a gift; a red plastic button in a green box, emblazoned with the Russian word for “reset” — er, make that “overcharged”.

Turns out the two words aren’t so dissimilar (peregruzka, perezagruzka), and an apparent clerical error resulted in a lost-in-translation moment.

“In a way, the word that’s on the button turns out to be also true.  We are resetting, and because we are resetting, the minister and I have an overload of work.”

Clinton deftly joked, at a press conference later in the day.

Time will tell if a new administration will succesfully make and use a clean slate, or if the typo becomes prophetic.