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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/clinton-announces-new-efforts-fight-somali-piracy/

This article is really two articles in one. The first part of the article talks about Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton's, plan to try to eradicate pirates or stop them from attacking merchant vessels in the future. Her plan talks of bringing the United Nations into play with several countries working together to eradicate piracy. Clinton does not mention using militaristic force against them, as most of them have been reported to be teens or tweens with automatic weapons and dinghy type boats. Clinton has called a meeting for nations to convene to speak about how best to go about eradicating piracy from several different perspectives. It seems that to eradicate them by financial means would be one of the best ways. Suggestions are being made to freeze known pirates' assets. Another method would be to coordinate different naval fleets to stop piracy.
I think that, in light, of the most recent occurrence involving Somali pirates and an American ship, this is a very good idea for our Secretary of State to be addressing. I think that a coordinated naval effort by several nations could be very effective in stopping piracy from occurring outside of shipping lanes, near Somalia. Pirates would have to be extremely desparate to be willing to risk themselves to take ships when they know they are going to be taking on powerful navies. I will be interested in following this over the next few weeks to see how Clinton addresses the issue.

The second part of the article addresses the military's need to stop spending so much money on such specialized equipment. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has been admonishing that the United States curtail some spending due to the lack of necessity for certain weapons systems. His main argument point has been against the Air Force's F-22 Raptor warplanes. The price tag on those is around $400 million and they have yet to be used in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Gates is proposing that the United States military forces focus on building "Joint Strike Fighters," which cost around $80 million.
I must admit that I partially agree with Gates' idea that we do not need such weapons when we are fighting skirmishes against pirates or terrorists in mountain caves. For that, we need more conventional weapons. However, if the American government continues to produce new weapons and high-tech weapons, good things can come. We can keep ahead of other countries with firepower and they create more jobs. The F-22 Raptor, alone, creates jobs in 40 states. I think we just need to maintain a good balance of spending on new, expensive weapons and conventional weapons.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/north-korea-asks-nuclear-experts-leave/
North Korea has recently expelled four American nuclear scientists. This comes comes a short time after the North Koreans fired what they claimed to be a "satellite." World powers think it to be a "thinly disguised test launch of a multistage intercontinental ballistic missile." Robert Wood, head of the State Department, has declared that he believes this to be a step backward in negotiations with North Korea. Things have progressively gotten worse recently with the North, as they have become more uncooperative. The International Atomic Energy Agency has also been expelled from the country.
I still believe that the North Koreans might need to be handled strongly in the very near future. We cannot allow a psychotic dictator continue to produce weapons that could potentially hurt us or our allies. We must confront the problem and attempt to reason with the rest of the Security Council to receive United Nations support, in my opinion. I do not believe we should start abandoning them after we have just started to become very active again.