Making Pirates Pay

Credit where it's due: Kudos to President Obama for allowing the military to use force to end the ordeal of Captain Richard Phillips in the waters off the Somali coast. It was the right thing to do, period. It will be interesting to see what he does about the other U.S. vessel that was recently hijacked - only the second U.S. vessel to suffer such indignity since 1866.

A measure of how Somali pirates have gotten used to being able to hijack and hold for ransom any ship they could manage to board: the outcry heard after news broke that U.S. Navy Seals had sniped three of their brethren to end the standoff over the USS Alabama's captain. Vowing to avenge their compatriots, Somali pirates seem to believe that it is their inalienable right to point guns at innocent people and collect money for it. That perception needs to change.

Despite the fears that these events will "usher in a new level of brutality" in the gulf of Aden, our leaders need to make this kind of response standard procedure in dealing with these thugs. We should never, ever pay a ransom, and neither should any other country. Paying only feeds the beast.

This kind of policy would be costly in lives and cargo in the short run, but long term it would put high-seas hijacking into a recession from which it would not recover. Our toughest men need to make a practice of doing very bad things to anyone who would harm Americans, so that the criminals will go elsewhere, or retreat back to the filthy holes from which they came.

Chuck Holton 
www.livefire.us