Are we going to hear the old pirate song (Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!) in many different languages? It's possible if the problem spreads. Strategypage makes an interesting point that the wildly reported success (more than $50 million ransom) has the potential to encourage piracy and outright thefts from the ships worldwide. It is already costing shipping industry (besides costing the affected countries-see graphic) more in hiring specializes security firms, in training their people, and proving non-lethal equipment to fend-off pirates. For now it is limited to the select routes which bypass Somalia but if the problem spreads then the costs could rapidly escalate.Read ARI's solution for ending the pirate crisis. I quote from the article:
“When America has once again earned a reputation as a power that none dare cross,” Mr. Journo concluded, “we won’t have to worry about pirates.”
Well! if America earns that reputation then we won't have to worry about a lot of other villains (Islamic terrorists, Iran, North Korea) as well.
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Recognizing the right of merchant ships to defend themselves with lethal force would be the cheapest and most just solution to the piracy crisis. Sending destroyers after guys in small boats with RPG's is just obscenely wasteful. If governments are to be involved at all, and I have some reservations about that, it should be posting sniper and/or machine gun teams on ships with orders to kill pirates. But I still think it's better to simply uphold the right of merchant shippers to hire their own pirate killers using whatever deadly weapons get the job done most efficiently.
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