Dealing with Pirates (sea pirates, that is)

Piracy has reared its ugly head again in recent years. Somali pirate gangs can make millions of dollars ransoming a ship that they can hijack with little risk or effort. This is quite an incentive for entrepreneurial people - even in countries where there is a viable government and economy. The root of the problem isn't poverty in Somalia, as some will tell us. The root of the problem is that piracy is a relatively low risk and high reward criminal enterprise.

What is a good solution to this problem?

Paying the pirates off hasn't helped - the high profits and low risks of this criminal enterprise have encouraged more piracy. Once again, those who have ignored the lessons of history are being taught that appeasement doesn't really work.

Naval vessels can patrol the area - and are patrolling the area. This is an expensive and often ineffective method of controlling the piracy. Pirates tend to avoid the warships, and the warships can't be everywhere. Further, since the pirates must be caught in the act, it is overkill to have a destroyer or frigate fighting against a motor launch with a few pirates aboard. Better to have naval vessels on hand to hunt down the pirate base ships once attacks are launched.

Crews could be armed. Despite the fear of guns that is common in much of the world, it would not be difficult or expensive to place a few pistols, rifles, and shotguns in an arms locker on the ship. When pirates start pursuing the vessel, the Captain could issue these weapons to his crewmen to fight off the pirates. Of course, this may require that the crew members receive training in safe handling of firearms. As a retired USAF CATM (firearms instructor), I see a business opportunity for myself. - Shipping companies can contact me with job offers.

If shipping companies are not willing to arm their crew members, there are some great ideas we can take from history. When U-Boats and bombers preyed upon merchant ships, we supplied ships with Coast Guard Armed Parties. The Coasties manned anti-aircraft and anti-sub defenses on the merchant vessels, and were available to defend against armed boarders. Placing teams of armed personnel - either USCG or contractors - on US flag vessels entering the threatened area would be a fairly low cost defense against the pirates.

Another idea from history is the Q ship. The Q ships were armed merchant ships that didn't appear to be armed. The Q ships were designed to attract attacks, and then destroy the attackers. An anti-pirate Q ship might have larger weapons, like crew served anti-ship guns or missiles, and might have sensor and communications equipment that would enable it to track the pirate attack craft back to the pirate base ship.

High seas piracy is not a normal criminal act. Along with terrorism, it is a crime that destabilizes the international scene, and needs to be treated differently than regular domestic crime. Since pirates are enemies of humanity and civilization, every measure should be taken to ensure that pirates are killed during their acts of piracy, rather than imprisoned afterwards. Pirates are not prisoners of war, nor are they common criminals. They belong to a special group that needs to be hunted down and exterminated.