People were going to die; it was just a matter of which people and will the result help end the rash of piracies off the Somali coast. As it turns out, those who died were the bad guys; the American captain was rescued unharmed. As to piracy, well, we'll see.

People dying is never a good thing, not to me. I'm a believer in what Gandalf told Frodo: If you can restore life, then you can take life. Life is precious, so amazingly precious that even the most heinous people have an absolute right to theirs. I recognize there are circumstances where bad guys must be killed in order to spare harm to innocents; I also recognize that anytime we get to that position, a slew of mistakes has been made. If death is how we fix a problem, then we are really fucked up.

The Somali pirates were probably not going to release the captain unless the received a ransom, and they were never going to get a ransom. Which meant the only possible outcome was violence. That this was how this incident played out means that (big duh moment here) things in that part of the world are a mess. For a moment, some order was restored, but not, obviously, the rule of law. There will be more attacks, more pirate raids, and next time the bad guys will make a rescue much more difficult.

When we have to kill people to fix a situation, then the rule of law is broken. That includes in this country. The use of capital punishment is an admission that law is not enough; if we have to kill to make ourselves feel like our society is functional, then our regard for law is clearly lacking. The rule of law obviates the need to kill, whether in war, crime or any other aspect of civil society. I am hopeful that under Pres Obama, the United States will create new relationships around the world that will replace force and violence with cooperation and a respect for law. I also hope we see the same in this country. No doubt many will continue to insist that killing criminals is necessary; they are wrong. The rule of law is also respect for life. We cannot say we respect life while killing others, even if we disguise that violence as "justice" or "national defense".