Isn’t this clever? Unarmed security guards.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members Friday and a helicopter rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea, officials said . . .
Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, said diplomats who could not be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, said a news release issued by their company, Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions.
The company said it was aware of the incident on the chemical tanker it identified as M/V BISCAGLIA.
“We have been informed by coalition military authorities that three of our unarmed security staff were rescued from the water by a coalition helicopter and are currently on board a coalition warship in the Gulf of Aden,” the company statement said.
J.D. Pendry, retired Command Sergeant Major, recalls one of Obama’s campaign statements and asks a good question:
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
“Just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” According to the Department of Defense, the active duty military strength as of June 30, 2008 was 1,385,122. There are 1,105,297 active duty military in the United States and its territories and 279,825 in foreign countries. These numbers do not include the military reserves. The National Defense Budget for 2008 was 647.2 billion dollars. Why would we need a “civilian national security force just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” as that?
What exactly does the President-elect envision as the mission of this force? Every state has a State Police Force. Every Governor has at his or her disposal the state’s National Guard. We have the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, The U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Coastguard and probably some agencies I have never heard of. The question that comes to mind is what exactly will the President’s national security force do that is not already accomplished by these organizations? I am not going to write the answers that keep popping into my mind; just suffice it to say that none of them are good.
But there’s another way to make a civilian security force just as powerful and well-funded as the military, and that’s to make the military just as weak and under-funded as your civilian national security force. If you can’t bring one up, then take the other down.
Maybe the new administration could pattern it after that British security force of three unarmed guys who abandon ship when it runs into trouble.
