“Caesar…. went to Pergamon, took the pirates out of prison and crucified the lot of them, just as he had often told them he would do when he was on the island and they imagined that he was joking.” from “The Parallel Lives” by PlutarchDuring 2008 alone, there were over 90 attacks on ships by pirates from Somalia. Those resulted in the capture of 14 ships and 250 of their crew members. Recently, a tanker with $100 million worth of Saudi crude oil in its holds was captured by pirates who are still holding out for a multi-million-dollar ransom. These attacks are all occurring in international waters, so there is no jurisdiction for dealing with them.
However, currently, the UN Security Council is working on a resolution that would authorize countries to enter Somali waters and use any means necessary to deal with piracy. In doing this, military forces could follow the example of Julius Caesar when he was captured by pirates while sailing the Mediterranean in 75 BC. While he was in captivity, Caesar told the pirates that as soon as he was ransomed, he would come back and kill them all. They laughed, thinking he was an entertainer of some kind. As soon as he was free, he raised a fleet, came back, and captured and crucified them, reminding them of his promise.
In the same spirit, military forces should use a dozen Predator aircraft, armed with rockets, to fly continually, high over the area where the pirates are operating. The pilotless Predators, flying at 275 miles an hour, can stay aloft for 30 hours, and their cameras can pick up on all movement for hundreds of square miles. With the constant threat of the armed Predators over international waters, a game of total reward for the pirates will be turned into one of total risk.
Individual pirate captains and their crews along the Somali coast will quickly get the point. Then, if the government of Somalia wants to do something about the problem, it is welcome to do so.
