Even in these tough times, wonderful money-making opportunities appear for guys with guts and a flair for the dramatic. A perfect example of this fact is seen in the growth of the Somali pirating industry.
These entrepreneurs have hijacked scores of ships in recent months, and just today pirated a huge Danish vessel with a crew of 20 Americans. A good piece of ransom business here if past performance is a sign of future results. And heck, what’s there to lose anyway? Even if these pirates get caught the only thing they will lose is a few of their AK-47s before being released
The U.S. went to war in Vietnam because of a supposed naval encounter in the Gulf of Tonkin. In 1804 we fought a small war against the Barbary Coast pirates and the Marine Hymn still includes a reference to that encounter on “the shores of Tripoli.” But because of some truly bizarre and conflicting laws of the sea we seem unable to confront today’s flagrant pirate menace. Instead, ship owners pay demanded ransoms and governments concoct elaborate excuses for not responding while a pissant group of maritime thugs do their daily dirty number.
I rarely support war. But I’m really big on law enforcement. At a time when we can use 21st century technology against enemies holed up in Pakistan, can’t we at least get serious about fighting an 18th century-style Somali pirate menace?