Aarrgh, matey? Again? Seriously?
Another ship has been attacked by pirates. This time, it was 9 pirates who boarded a Chinese merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, forcing the 30-member crew to barricade themselves in the ship’s accommodation room. Over 125 averted, attempted, and successful attacks and hijackings by pirates have taken place year to date.
What’s going on?
According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, this growing piracy problem is “a symptom of the instability, the poverty, the lawlessness that have plagued Somalia for the past two decades,” adding that the Bush administration “does believe that the time has come for the United Nations to consider and authorize a peacekeeping operation.”