Be Careful Who You Rescue

The Gateway Pundit posted an article today about some recent events on an Italian ship that rescued a group of migrants off the coast of Libya.

The article reports:

The Italian ship Vos Thalassa rescued 67 migrants, including six children, off the coast of Libya on Sunday while responding to a distress call.

But when the Italian crew turned to to meet the Libyan coast guard the migrants threatened to behead the Italian crew.

The Italian government then intervened to rescue the crew of the rescue ship.

The report from Euronews quoted in the article states:

However, international shipping company Vroon, which operates Vos Thalassa, an oil rig supply vessel, told Euronews that the ship “never requested to enter an Italian port or even Italian territorial waters.”

‘Severely outnumbered’
Vroon said that when the vessel turned to meet with the Libyan coast guard to transfer the migrants, they “started to threaten the crew, surrounding and pushing them and making ‘cut your throat’ gestures.”

“Because of these threats the vessel returned to its position and reported this situation to the MRCC [Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre] in Rome.”

The shipping company said being “severely outnumbered on board a merchant vessel by an angry crowd that has very little to lose is very frightening”.

“We are very proud of the professionalism of our crew in these very challenging circumstances.”

There are differences between cultures. We need to consider that when dealing with migrants.

At Least Someone Is Stepping Up To The Plate

On Tuesday, Breitbart.com reported that Italy is considering sending 5,000 troops into Libya to fight terrorists.

The article reports:

In a recent video purportedly produced by the Islamic State’s Libya affiliate, the group slaughtered twenty-one Christians and vowed to seek out Rome as its next target. “And we will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission, the promise of our prophet, peace be upon him,” a North American English-accented militant leader said after his comrades slaughtered the Christian hostages.

Italian Defense Minister Robert Pinotti said that the 5,000 troops were ready and willing to lead a unilateral mission if necessary.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Monday that “the proposal is to wait, so the U.N. Security council can work with a bit more conviction on Libya” in reaching a diplomatic accord, the Associated Press reported. The Italian head of state said that the U.N. should recruit “all the players, the local tribes, African Union countries, Arab countries, the Europeans” to fight ISIS in Libya.

Cabinet Undersecretary Enrico Zanetti said regarding the proposal, “From how things are evolving in Libya, frankly, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario different from a military kind of international intervention.”

The rapid growth of ISIS is an international problem. However, the fact that Iran is about to obtain a nuclear weapon and a delivery system is also an international problem. We need to be careful to pay attention to both problems. Every nation needs to defend itself from terrorism, but we also need to remember that a radical Islamic state with a nuclear bomb and the rocket to deliver it will bring us to a new level of terrorism threat.