The news from off of Somalia gets interestinger and interestinger. The pirates made a big blunder this time, taking an American flagged ship. The crew has already gotten control of the ship back from the pirates, and a Destroyer is steaming in to try to rescue the Captain who is being held hostage on a lifeboat.
Piracy is not a huge problem...until it is. The actual economic consequences thereof are minimal, but the psychological damage to be done to the global system through a loss of confidence in the freedom of the seas is immense.
It is time to take care of this problem at sea and on land. Sounds like a good job for the Marines.
A suggestion for policy makers: headless, bloated pirate corpses floating up on Somali beaches might induce some second thoughts on behalf of the next wave of enterprising modern day buccaneers. And would anyone who really matters even care?
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