Pirates Must Be Dealt With

Reading the headlines recently almost makes me believe we've gone back in time for a couple of centuries. Once again, we have pirates attacking ships. But these modern pirates aren't happy with removing a little "booty" -- they're holding the ships until millions of dollars in ransom are paid.

The ship pictured above is the MV Faina. It was bound for Kenya with a shipment of arms when it was captured by Somali pirates. The pirates demanded $35 million ransom, but it is believed a deal was reached for around $20 million. The ship is to be released as soon as arrangements are made to pay the ransom.

These pirates are still holding several other ships, including a Saudi tanker with $100 million worth of oil on board. You know they're going to want a ton of money to release that tanker. Why should we Americans worry about a Saudi ship held by pirates? Who do you think is going to wind up paying that ransom? It won't be the Saudis or the big oil companies -- it'll be us consumers when we buy gas at our local gas station.

No American ships have been captured yet -- at least none flying under the American flag. But then most American ships are registered under Panamanian or other flags so they don't have to follow the stricter American regulations. But whether the pirates attack American ships, or just force American consumers to pay higher prices to cover the ransoms, these pirates need to be dealt with.

This is not the first time America has had to deal with African pirates. Right after we became a nation, our ships began to be targets of the Barbary Coast pirates operating out of North Africa (Morrocco and Algeria). It took our Navy and Marines two Barbary Wars (1801-05 and 1815) to deal with the problem.

There are several nations patrolling the area around the Horn of Africa, but that will not end the piracy. They can't be everywhere at once, and the pirates will just wait for an unprotected ship. As in previous centuries, the only way to truly end the piracy is to take away the land bases the pirates need to operate.

No one country can do this, because it would involve operating on Somali soil. This needs to be a United Nations action, and it should involve more than African and Middle Eastern countries. The United States, China, Russia and the European Union must all participate. This problem affects the whole world and the world must deal with it together.