ARRR!!

It is true, the parrot is gone, and the old pistol has been replaced with an RPG, but the pirate is still here. One of the 'simple' solutions to the problem of piracy is just to have the men of the cargo ships carry guns, but a classmate of mine, writing in the blog 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' has a different point of view. She suggests that the "solution to the problem lies in reform on land, not guns at sea."

This seems makes sense. If we could control the land, where the pirates come from, we could control their effect at sea. But how would we control a foreign land? Easily, we could use our bloated military budget just land a battleship at every major port and take over operations. But if I try to use a bit of foresight, I may not see this being a great solution. Fortunately my classmate can see this too and also suggests America should not "pull a Panama-esque revolution in the African country to put a more pro-America/freedom of seas regime in power." Although if I were running for power in Africa I would be running under the freedom of seas slogan.

The suggested solution is to have reform come from within their own borders (maybe with a smidgen of U.N. help). Why doesn't Somalia think of this? I just got an email from an African prince, wanting some help in transferring funds to the U.S.; maybe I should suggest that solution to him. In truth, that would be an idea solution, however it will not happen in the near future. In the mean time we need to make our seas safe.

Perhaps if we were to punish the pirates we catch it would be a deterrent to other pirates. My classmate suggests having "these men need to be either tried and prosecuted in American courts (for their crimes are against Americans), or even better in International Court." Again, taking action against the pirates seems like a good idea on the surface, but lets look at what is really happening. These men are not working for themselves, and the people actually benefiting from piracy will not get caught by the navy. It would be a pretty small warlord if he had to do his own piracy. Once it was known what happened to the most recent group of pirates, a retaliation attack was mounted by the warlord and even more boats were taken! So again, how are we supposed to protect ourselves?

Guns.