The SF Chronicle has a piece today talking about lessons from the Somali pirate stand-off that ended when Navy SEAL snipers took out three of the bad guys - Rescues from pirates teachable moment for U.S.
It's the same story we've heard for a while for land forces but transferred now to the sea - we're dealing with asymmetrical forces, ie. our large fleet navy v. small bands on boats. And another one we've heard a lot: the 1 million square miles of ocean is just too large to effectively patrol.
But the piece is a little short on actual solutions.
We've come a long way from state sponsored piracy on the high seas that characterized the Barbary Wars (1801 - 1805). In that case, America could attack and negotiate with a head of government.
A few options being mooted about in letters to the editor at NY Times:
- arm the crews. I don't think many captains are going to like this one
- move ships in protected convoys, like we did during WWI and WWII against German U-boats
- provide Marines or special forces for high risk ships. How are you going to be able to do that? Seems like a nice business opportunity for some enterprising gun-for-hire firm.
One I haven't heard but would probably be the most effective given the nature of the enemy: back one gang to fight another. Certainly distasteful, but if we can turn the pirates against each other, you have a chance of being successful without creating a vast naval watch system we can't support.
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