Oh, and the American media will gloss over the atrocities. Any one want to take a cruise?

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – “The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US resolution authorizing for the first time international operations against pirates on land in Somalia.

The text, co-sponsored by Belgium, France, Greece, Liberia and South Korea, is the fourth approved by the council since June to combat rampant piracy off Somalia’s coast.

Resolution 1851 authorizes for one year states already involved in fighting piracy off Somalia to “take all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” to suppress “acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.”

Unlike previous resolutions, the current text empowers states combating piracy to conduct operations on land in Somalia.”

First really the only fix for the problem is to let the boats arm themselves…however this is the one thing that few countries and most of all the UN will refuse to do.

The UN has passed a number of rules and regs and having armed crews/mercs on board is a huge issue with them. Plus the legal issues of doing battle in coastal waters means that 3rd world governments could imprison and impound boats defending themselves from pirates. The 3rd world would have get legal fun taking over ships.

The argument of the “fly-by-shipping” is mostly BS… pirates will get around to attacking other targets once the easy stuff dries up… and even better since by that time they will have made alot of money and will be much better armed and trained to fight defended ships.

As for escort… not enough navy ships in the world to escort even 10% of the worlds shipping.

The world government idea(UN), lack of tolerance by nations to arms and the simple reality of them still being needed on a day to day basis means that ship crews will suffer…

Somalis are moderate Muslims, and are unique among cultures in their extreme intolerance of government of any kind – Somalia’s anarchic period was the most peaceful and prosperous in a very long time, as the traditional Somali legal code is an adequate (and seemingly superior) replacement of the traditional western concept of the state. Leave them alone and the Islamists, too, will be toppled.

Hardly any. There’s hardly any US flagged ships LEFT on the High Seas anymore.

Those in that region are usually on military charter, and therefore have arms to defend themselves with.

The Somali, (and the Indonesian/Phillips Channel), piracy problem could be conclusively solved very quickly by allowing merchant ships to carry automatic weapons of sufficient caliber to put paid to any boarding party while they’ve not yet made fast.

And hew back to the long-held Admiralty Law holding that pirates are “Enemies of All Humanity”, and therefore given no quarter or protections.

The chance of that coming to pass are nil, since governments get stupid about “foreign” ships with guns and ammo aboard, and the world’s Navies are well aware of how quickly we could “break their rice bowl” if we were armed and unfettered to defend our ships.

So YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, get to foot the bill for the frigate or destroyer to ride escort, yet never actually be at hand when pirates strike.

(And fwiw, I’ve been aboard when one of my ships was hit by pirates…at Bangladesh. They snuck on and stole some old mooring lines, and then skedaddled.)