Barbarism, to paraphrase Christopher Dawson, is not a far-distant stage in the evolution of human society, but a perpetual possibility simmering under the surface of civilization. In no country on earth has barbarism erupted with more devastating force than in Somalia, a land of clashing creeds and ethnicities, murderous warlords, and, of course, those quintessential barbarians—pirates.

Partisanship is now (appropriately) at fever pitch, but some things should be beyond left and right. Among them is awed gratitude at the resilience of the American order. This is a nation where political reprisals take the form of unkind advertisements, and where the pirates illegally download Rocky III.