Monday, December 1, 2008

Pirates of the Gulf of Aden: Please Bring them to an End

Once again the Somali Pirates have struck again. They have captured over a dozen ships (including a Ukranian ship filled with tanks, ammo and spare parts, and a $100 million Saudi oil tanker) and gotten wealthy off of the ransom. Today they made the news by unsuccessfully attacking a cruise ship. Luckily for the ship it was so much bigger that it is almost impossible for pirates to board, and it was able to outrun it.

It strikes me as odd that in a "civilized" world we are standing by and allowing piracy to exist. These pirates are disrupting international trade, and all the world is doing is establishing a naval force to cruise around that area and "protect" that shipping lane.

As we all know the best defense is a god offense. In the early 1800's America had a similar problem with protecting it's ships from pirates. After America got sick of paying the ransoms on its ships, we decided we had to forcibly stop the pirates from committing piracy. Under the leadership of President Thomas Jefferson, the American Navy was birthed and it sailed right into the ports of the North African pirates, and destroyed the pirates. Hopefully the nation and the world will come to the point where it stands up to the pirates, and destroys the pirates before they get too technically advanced as a result of the millions the pirates are receiving from the ransom money. Every ship has the right to sail the open seas. We need to keep it this way. We must protect international trade and end piracy.

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