Pirates and Terrorists

Bill Roggio over at the The Fourth Rail has a nice summary piece on the GWOT and its "ocean front." Referring to the recent commentary from the Strait Times (my post here) in which the commentator expressed the view that the current piracy/terrorist concerns are but a potential excuse to meddle in the affairs of the nations bordering the Malacca Strait, Mr. Roggio sums up the problems nicely:

This attitude is perhaps the most difficult obstacle to overcome in this war. Domestic and foreign leftist groups and governments have portrayed American security interests as 21st Century Colonialism, and world governments do little to dispel this notion. This is ironic; particularly in the case of maintain safe passage in the world’s oceans, as American’s attempts to keep the sea lanes open also happen to coincide with the security interests of the major world economies. France, Germany, China, and a host of nations, including those of the Middle East who depend on oil exports to bolster their regimes, are dependent on the US Navy to maintain order on the open seas. Yet [they?] promote the notion of American imperialism, which hinders the much needed cooperation between the United States and various world governments.

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We need to be very careful in how we try to counter this notion. I suspect an offer of some patrol boats and helicopters to be used by the Straits nations would be appreciated more than the offer of a US Task Force doing the work for them...