Pirates of the Ponant
At the moment France is covering itself with glory that a group of French commandos managed in spectacular manner to save the lives of the crew of a private yacht, the Ponant, hijacked by pirates. Without wishing to dampen the glory, I cannot help wondering whether this is this yet another Sarkozy Spectacular, designed to divert our attention from weightier matters? I am always sceptical when a government’s much-contested decision on some important question is rapidly followed, by pure coincidence, by a major success in that same area, as if to convince the public that the much-contested decision is therefore justified. For example, Sarkozy has faced much criticism over his decision to send troops to Afghanistan to help in the difficult guerrilla against the Taliban. What luck, then, that while that acrimonious debate was still raging an opportunity for the same French commandos to shine should spontaneously present itself in a well-organised operation personally directed by Nicolas Sarkozy. For a week all French eyes have been on the yacht (owned, again by pure chance, by a friend of Sarkozy’s), imaginations captivated by the idea that pirates still operate in those far-flung waters.
Every day, probably 7 or 8 times a day, for the past three years at least there has been showing, in the Naval Dockyard at Portsmouth, a truly excellent film made by the Royal Navy about exactly this sort of operation. A British family are captured by pirates off an unknown coast-line and held ransom. After monitoring the hijack for a while, the gallant tars of the Royal Navy swoop in a superbly orchestrated rescue operation to free them all. The film is a no-holds barred recruiting film - designed to attract customers. It is beautifully made, to the highest Hollywood standards, and very expensive - all entirely convincing: the latest and best military hard-ware is on display – evil-looking guided missiles are launched, explode in a very impressive display of pyrotechnics, bodies flung high, a beautiful house blown apart. Quite amazing for a recruiting film. It is also, as a semi-documentary with a serious purpose, rooted in some sort of reality and authenticity. You do not spend that amount of public money without their Lordships having their say. This sort of thing happens – in various parts of the world pirates still operate, demanding ransoms. Armed forces are trained to deal with them – as the French commandos proved, since you cannot perform that sort of highly-skilled military operation without enormous training and full-scale rehearsals – and, in a circular argument, the military would not take all that trouble to train in a very specialised field if the demand was not there.
I am not of course suggesting for a moment that the French operation off Somalia was a fabricated scenario – merely suggesting that it could have been. It was spectacular and pain-free: no one was killed, the hostages were released, the President’s friend’s yacht was returned to its owner unharmed, a single, perfectly-placed shot from a helicopter managed to smash the engine of the fast moving 4×4 (one has to assume that since the helicopter was able to get in close enough to do that, the pirates (a cast of local fishermen apparently) were not returning the fire). The whole thing, as I say, directed by the President (well-known for personally taking charge of every aspect of French life).
It will be interesting to see what effect this military triumph has on the French public – the homecoming is today, the director of operations going with full media to meet the crew as they climb down the steps of the plane bringing them home. Will it have the same desired effect as the RN’s recruiting film and turn public opinion towards the usefulness of the military? As Charles Bremner points out, nobody is howling about the cost of it all.
M. Sarkozy needs a moment of triumph: having risen slightly last month, his ratings have fallen again, and this time he is accompanied by his Prime Minister. Lycéens are on the street protesting at an attempt to cut education costs, more important reforms seem to have stalled (or at least no one can see tangible results, and the pace seems to have slowed down) as we approach the much-anticipated first anniversary of his election and nothing more is heard of the big gestures on the environment, labour laws, government. Meanwhile at an everyday level prices continue to rise, articles about the failure of this or that piece of government legislation abound. Any head of state in Sarkozy’s position would look round desperately for a quick fix. I just wonder for how long rescuing people from different parts of the globe is going to do the job for him. While there is an endless list of people who need rescuing, there are slightly more important things to attend to at home.