Not long after achieving independence, the United States faced its first foreign threat: pirates off the coast of Africa seizing American merchant ships. As Michael Oren recounts in Power, Faith and Fantasy, his sweeping history of America’s involvement in the Middle East, American vessels were abducted beginning in 1784, their crews enslaved and held for ransom. One local despot, Hassan Dey, paraded his American captives “past jeering crowds” and “spat at them, ‘Now I have got you, you Christian dogs, you shall eat stones.’”
This crisis, Oren writes, “raised fundamental questions about the nature, identity, and viability of the United States. . . . Would Americans imitate Europe and bribe the pirates, or would they create a revolutionary precedent and fight them?” George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both believed it was right and necessary to use military force. But not until 1794 would Congress vote to create a navy. And not until 1805 would U.S. Marines fight on the “shores of Tripoli.”
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Today, American ships are again under siege by pirates off the African coast. This time, however, the buccaneers are setting sail from Somalia rather than from the territories that are now Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Today, the U.S. has the greatest navy the world has ever seen. But the debate is exactly what it was more than 200 years ago: Do we have the will to fight? Or would we prefer to submit to blackmail — to pay tribute to sea dogs?
Just last week, Somali pirates seized a vessel that was being sailed around the world by two American couples who were stopping along the way to donate Bibles to far-flung churches and schools. As American naval officials attempted to negotiate their release, all four were murdered.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded by saying the Obama administration was “deeply saddened and very upset . . . ” She called the murders a “deplorable act” that underscored the need for increased international cooperation. “We’ve got to have a more effective approach to maintaining security on the seas, in the ocean lanes, that are so essential to commerce and travel.” Ya think?
At this moment, Somali pirates are holding more than 30 vessels and more than 600 hostages. They have been collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom — the figure has been growing year after year. As Tara Helfman and Dan O’Shea report in the February issue of Commentary, these pirates are not “merry bands of lucky amateurs. They are organized militias with informants in foreign ports, and networks of ransom negotiators, money launderers, and arms runners abroad. Moreover there is mounting evidence of collaboration between militant Islamists and pirate militias.”
The “international community” has taken no serious actions to curb these international outlaws. Helfman and O’Shea write: “Whereas the Romans used to crucify pirates and the Carthaginians used to flay them alive, the UN Security Council’s crowning achievement in its campaign against piracy is a recent report detailing the successful ‘business model’ adopted by Somali pirates (or, as the report termed them, ‘shareholders’).”
Such dithering is emboldening the pirates. Last week, one of their spokesmen — yes, they are media savvy — issued new threats specifically against Americans in reaction to a New York court sentencing Somali pirate Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse to 33 years in prison for the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
Maj. Gen. Tom Wilkerson, USMC (ret.), is CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute. He told me he believes it is high time for a new approach. The U.S.,along with a coalition of the willing, he says, could and should increase the risks of piracy and lower the rewards. That means taking the offensive: killing pirates at sea, in the harbors where they dock their vessels (and those they seize), and in what are now their safe havens and homes in the coastal areas of the northern Somali province of Puntland.
“Anytime you give your enemies places where they can rest and regroup, where they can’t be attacked, you cede the initiative to them,” Wilkerson said. “This doesn’t require putting boots on the ground. We have demonstrated that we have the technology” for both surveillance and remote attacks.
Would taking the war to the pirates be a violation of international law, as some proponents of inaction and appeasement claim? Wilkerson said it would not: “Two UN resolutions, 1851 and 1897, allow hot pursuit” at sea, into port, and onto land.
Other measures could be implemented as well. There could be expanded and coordinated naval patrols in the area, drawing from all nations whose ships, cargoes, and crews are threatened. Under current law, insurance companies are actually incentivized to pay ransom. New legislation could be introduced to encourage shipping companies to defend their vessels and crews with less fear of being sued for “violating the rights” of brigands. An international tribunal could be set up to prosecute captured pirates. Somali nationals could be trained as a constabulary force to prevent piracy, once suppressed, from being reestablished.
“The point is you have to decide on a goal and a strategy to achieve it,” Wilkerson argues. “But if we don’t do something there will be more opportunities for innocent deaths like we saw last week.”
Helfman and O’Shea add: “Seen from the perspective of an Islamic world that is testing the will of the democratic West to prevail over terrorism, the spectacle of captured pirates being allowed to slip through the cracks of international law is proof that Islamists are poised to prevail.”
We know what Washington and Jefferson would do. The question now: What will Obama and Clinton do?
— Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism and Islamism.
The solution to piracy is simple. Make the cost of piracy out of line with the risks, by increasing the risks. Arm a flotilla of merchant vessels; kill the pirates who come to assault them; use our vaunted pin point missiles to destroy their landing places, ports and vessels not at sea. If a single one of the captured boats and 600 hostages is not released by a given deadline, commence the systematic destruction of maritime facilities along the Somali coast.
These things are not hard to identify; you or I can do it with internet mapping services, and one presumes that our military has better data available than do you or I.
Indeed, all we lack to solve this problem in 48 or perhaps 72 hours is the will, the "stones", and a president who cares more about American interests than about appearing to be sympathetic to the pirates and other muslim terrorists.
Such action as I propose would send a message to other bad actors on the world stage not to trifle with Americans or our interests. Again, one doubts that this would please our current leaders.
From an email received this morning from a friend sailing around the world. He's in Cochin India and decided a few weeks ago to ship his sailboat to the Mediterranean rather than try to sail:
"I wanted you to see this. We all need to urge our government to do something about piracy. It is impacting individual yachtsmen like me and the author of the following email, as well as impacting billions of dollars of international commerce.
This morning I received the following radio email from a friend aboard a USA flagged yacht currently in the Coalition Corridor in the Gulf of Aden:
Unfortunately, we have had 4 incidents along the Corridor in less than 24 hours. Last night we saw a ship being attacked not 5 miles from our position. Flares going off and then a fast moving boat with a red light headed in our direction - then light went dark. Enough for us to call MARLO who got US Warship to speed in our direction. We had Helo's and an escort the rest of the night. Incredibly scary. Then today we spotted a dhow with 2 skiffs in the middle of the corridor again 6 miles from our position...and even though they get reported, the resources are too thin to respond in time! And at 12:30 sailing yacht [deleted] (USA) & yacht sailing yacht [deleted] (USA) reported a merchant vessel was being attacked again in the corridor only 38 miles ahead of us. It is NOT good here. It is very, very bad. We are ditching plans for [deleted] and going north to [deleted]...Yes, I have the report of gun fire and rioting in the Port of [deleted]…I am headed there anyway…that IS how bad it is here in the Coalition Corridor.
More information at: http://www.facebook.com/notes/quest-never-forget/radio-email-from-a-usa-flagged-yacht-currently-in-the-coalition-corridor/198163786878655#!/note.php?note_id=198163786878655&id=196704463691254
US Congressman Ted Poe is giving a Floor Speech in US Congress on Thursday or Friday this week requesting that the administration do something about piracy.
If you are a facebooker, please spread the word on Facebook, If not, please do something to raise awareness…do something!"
What will Obama and Clinton do? They will continue to be “deeply saddened and very upset . . . ”
As for me, I will continue to be disgusted with "my" gutless government.
A sad and ironic twist in the recent murder of 4 americans by Somali pirates. The USS Sterett, the destroyer ordered to observe but not act was named for Lieutenant Andrew Sterett, the commander of the schooner USS Enterprise (12 guns) immediately prior to Steven Decatur’s famous command. In the First Barbary War (1801), Sterett sailed the Enterprise to the Barbary Coast to suppress piracy. They took a Tripolitan corsair, killing 30 pirates and wounding 30 more with no losses, then dumped their cannon overboard and released the ship since there was not yet a state of war with the Tripoli. The pirate captain and officers were humiliated and beaten by their own people.
But bold action like this will not happen until we have a chief executive instead of a chief community organizer.
I know I'm not the first to say it but what's wrong with "Pirate Safari's". Let folks pay for a cruise and then we "troll" in the pirate areas. "Passengers" can bring two weapons and ammunition(like a real safari).Sort of like shooting an animal on a real safari, wiring it to a tree and waiting for the lions to show up.
More practical solution, Arm the ships. It wouldn't be that difficult to put small groups of people on board that will be the sucurity force. The weapons can be put under seal when the Pilot arrives to take the ship into harbor (most countries probably don't want armed merchant vessels in their ports). If the pirates can obtain AK's and RPG's, why can't we?
There are also non-lethal weapons intended for crowd control but I am unsure how effective they would be at the ranges involved.
Unfortunately, commercial radars aren't all that effective at detecting small wooden or fiberglass boats and most ships are soft targets. Firehoses work against the smelly folks from Greenpeace but aren't very effective against guns. No matter what, sailors should have the means of defense onboard!
Clinton and Obama will probably hold a White House dinner for the pirates where they will issue appologies for the evils of American imperialism. Maybe we should donate some "Beecher's bibles" to American yachts. Every vessel should have a 50 cal Barrett sniper rifle. Enough foreign aid for these thieves. Let's blast some of Sally Struthers Unicef kids straight to hell.
Two or three centuries ago, it was a common practice for merchant ships to carry defensive armament. That was a less squeamish, more robust age. I'd suggest that merchant ships be armed, that their guns (perhaps 20-millimetre cannon) be concealed, and that pirates thus be lured into coming close, at which point they could be obliterated by a sudden blizzard of shells or bullets. A security team should be on board for the first voyage after guns are installed, to instruct the regular crew in their use. After that the regular crew could take over, encouraged by the promise of a handsome bounty for every pirate killed.
I do not for the life of me, understand why any civilian boat of a pleasure variety would get anywhere near this hornet's nest. That being said, I would love to see our Navy set up camp in the area and begin target practice. We should tell those involved with any hostages that we are going to solve the problem and your loved ones may not make it. But we will make it safe for those who come after them. I think 200 years is long enough to put up with this problem.
With retaliation comes a problem for our President, the pirates are members of the I.P.U., International Pirates Union. And worse, it is believed they have already funneled money to his reelection campaign, money he wants to continue receiving.
It is rumored the campaign plans to start a public relations offensive portraying the pirates as the comical figures of the movies, parrots, funny hats, swords, wooden legs, the whole bit.
They hope this will stop any serious calls for retaliation and make anyone who does so look like a fool. The state run media even plan to show brief cartoon depictions of pirates after stories about the pirate’s misdeeds are reported.
The hope is, people will dismiss seriously doing anything to protect American lives and allow the Democrats to continue their own piracy of the nation here at home.
Have any more Russian ships been taken since their navy released captured pirates 600 miles at sea after taking their weapons and navigational equipment?
It's very simple. If pirates take over a yacht (who should have at least small arms aboard, to say nothing of merchant vessels w/ heavier defenses), our navy should not negotiate with them. We should not treat them like the average person caught comitting a crime, because these people live outside of all laws and regulations. Just send in the SEALs (or whatever military forces are most convienent at the time) and kill them.
As for survivors, I believe the traditional punishment for piracy was death by hanging or firing squad. Or we could just go the Pirates of the Carribean route, and leave them on an island with nothing except the clothes on their back, and a revolver with one bullet.
One tool potentially useful for defending against pirate attacks without violating other nations prohibitions against arms on civilian vessels would be to use laser devices to blind the pirates,particularly their RPG and heavy machine gunners. Russia makes some powerful laser rangefinders that are NOT "eye-safe".Compared to useful firearms,they are legal,affordable and easy to obtain.
Blinded pirates cannot aim their weapons,nor navigate,and nobody gets killed.
Let's face it,on the high seas,you have to lookout for yourself,the "police" are not around to be of any help to you.
When they are captured at sea, why not just release them, but don't release their boats. This used to be called walking the plank. (Yes, I know this isn't really historical.)
The Q-ship idea is appealing. But ultimately, as HW Richmond said, you have to "wipe out the nests in which they breed". Which means that, if the home country can't, we will bomb their bases.
Pay no ransoms.
Summarily execute -- no trial -- anyone who puts himself forward as their "representative" or "negotiator."
Drone-bomb their known bases and harbors.
Use Delta Force-style teams to invade and slaughter them on the ground.
But how much of this will we get from a president who's philosophically in league with Islamists?
As an Obama voter and a self-proclaimed Michael Dukakis liberal, I support an expedition of wholesale slaughter against these pirates. This is a threat to national and world security with exponential risk. As long as it is allowed to continue, it will not just increase but multiply and re-multiply.
Some broader context would be helpful here. The United States should take some leadership in bringing world support for Somali Puntland.
@Bulldog82 - There's an appeal to the idea of granting letters of marque to pirate-hunters, but I'm not sure if the economics of it would make sense to the hunters. Not to mention that it would be difficult for private firms to acquire the kind of naval weaponry required to do it right.
I think @AmericaFirst's idea of vessels keeping large-bore rifles on board is better, but there are differing firearms laws from port to port. Some customs officials would no doubt react unfavorably to a yacht being armed with a rifle that could feasibly disable other vessels. And by "unfavorably" I mean send the owner to prison.
The best course of action for private boaters is to just stay the heck away from there.
First, there should be no mind payed to the dancing elves who are the proponents of ransoms met. Second, any pirate who takes an American vessel of any sort should be boarded and immediately killed and ceremoniously thrown to the sharks...the more video, the better. Any pirate making his way to land should be technologically followed and mutilated. After the second round of these interventions, we would hear massive amounts of moaning and groaning from pirates and pitiably green landlubbers as well...and the number of pirating attacks dwindle.
Kill them. Destroy the ships, the harbors, their homes.
A couple of years back I attended a lecture by a State Department employee who worked on Somalia issues for a number of years.
I asked, why don't we just kill all the pirates. Answer, we can't do that. I asked, Why? She couldn't answer.
One of my fingers still hurts from the guards prying the microphone out of my hand. Should have held it with both hands.
