Replies

"While we now wonder... whether a present day Lt. Decatur would be allowed to act at all, after briefings by State Department lawyers, and with strict orders handed down from the present White House."

By this time, we all instinctively know the answer to this question. Lt. Decatur, upon his return, would be arrested and brought before a courts martial. Given the pitiful attitude of our government and its liberal adherents, he would be found guilty and jailed for the remainder of his days.

It appears to me that some practical things could be done to deny access to our ships by pirates. I wonder if their access path involves a ladder and, if so, could such be made retractable. That retrofit might cost a few thousand but would be well worth it. Barring that, a security force randomly placed on ships might be advisable. By random, I mean that every other or every third ship would have a security force placed in a random manner so that pirates would not know which ship was armed.

Just as a point of interest, I recently re-viewed "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe as Capt. Jack Aubrey. It takes place in 1805, with a relatively small British man o'war pursuing a faster, more powerful French man o'war which is seeking to enter the Pacific and cause havoc with british trade.

The movie opens along the coast of Brazil -- an intial fight leaves Aubrey's ship damaged and gives the faster French ship a good head start. Aubrey pursues and get down to the Cape of Good Hope (if I have that right) and runs into fierce storm. An aide tells him, "Their ship is bigger, faster, and we will never find her in the Pacific. And now this storm is tearing our ship apart! Perhaps we are exceeding our orders in running such a great risk."

The captain looks at the man and says, "My orders were to pursue him as far as Brazil. I exceeded my orders a long time ago."

And of course, in the end, Aubrey captures the French ship.

I know it's fiction, but once upon a time, military leaders were expected to use their judgment.