Ending the scourge of piracy? — VOICES for REASON

In a dramatic rescue operation carried out by U.S. Navy Seals, Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama was freed from Somali pirates. The Seals performed admirably and under challenging conditions.

But has the operation made us safe by teaching the pirates a lesson? Apparently not. Even as the Maersk Alabama episode came to an end, there’s news of a pirate attack on another American-flagged ship, the Liberty Sun. Given the belligerence of some of the Somali pirates after the release of Capt. Phillips (one of them threatened that “In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.”), there’s reason to expect further attacks.

So why have the pirates not been deterred?

Because we have emboldened them for years through an entrenched policy of passivity and accommodation — and the freeing of Capt. Phillips was unfortunately just one, halting step in a better direction.

Our typical policy was evident even in the recent rescue. Once four of the pirates had taken the captain hostage in a lifeboat, Americans did not retaliate with force. Instead, an enormously powerful U.S. Navy destroyer simply followed along in their wake and drone aircraft kept watch from the skies. The strategy was “negotiation” — that is, appeasement. There was talk of getting some Somali clan on the mainland to use its leverage with this gang, in order to secure Capt. Phillips’s release. Trained FBI negotiators were consulted. One of the pirates came aboard the Navy destroyer to negotiate the ransom. It was only when the three other pirates seemed to be particularly menacing toward Phillips that the Seals shot them dead. What’s striking here is how far down the road of appeasement we were willing to go. That willingness to capitulate is — sad to say — a common feature of U.S. policy.

The result? Part of it can be seen in the attitude of some of the pirates.

“We are safe and we are not afraid of the Americans,” one of the pirates, who was not identified by name, told Reuters by satellite phone, speaking on behalf of the men holding Capt. Richard Phillips on the lifeboat. “We will defend ourselves if attacked,” he added.[Emphasis added]

That’s precisely what some of them have done following the rescue of Capt. Phillips.

What we need — in response to piracy as well as other  foreign threats — is an across-the-board reversal in U.S. policy.  That process must begin by putting American interests first, and doing so proudly and consistently across time and different contexts. Our government’s sole purpose is to protect our lives and freedom and property — and that certainly includes from the threat of piracy on the waves.

When it became clear (more than a year ago) that the waters off the coast of Somalia are a playground for pirates, the minimum that Washington should have done is to lay down an ultimatum to the pirates to leave Americans alone or else — and live up to it.

The substance of that warning: if any American vessel is captured by pirates, we will use military force to destroy every last pirate base in Somalia (and any neighboring African country). No country that harbors pirates can demand that its sovereignty be respected. When such a threat of retaliation is made fully credible, it can be sufficient to deter would-be aggressors. If any dare test us, then we must unapologetically respond with force.

Not just occasionally, when negotiations go south — but on principle.

When America has once again earned a reputation as a power that none dare cross, we won’t have to worry about pirates.