PIRATES, BUT NOT OF PENZANCE

Posted at 8:10 a.m. ET

Isn't this strange?  With all the heavy problems facing humankind, whoever thought that piracy would make a comeback?  Now, all of us have dealt with ruthless, sword-swishing pirates who'll steal anything.  After all, I've worked in Hollywood.  But these boys are real pirates, off the coast of Somalia, and they're giving navies a big headaches.  There's got to be a film in this.

Now Arthur Herman, whose history of the Royal Navy is a classic, suggests what can be done about this new plague.  Mr. Obama, please read:

US Marines have been singing about their exploits on the "shores of Tripoli" ever since President Thomas Jefferson sent them to scour out the world's most dangerous pirates, the Barbary corsairs, from their bases in North Africa in 1801. Now President Barack Obama may have to give the Corps the chance to add a new line - by sending Marines to destroy the newest generation of pirates, this time on the other side of Africa.

Watch Code Pink swim out to help the pirates.

Piracy has been an index of civilization's ability to enforce law and order since ancient times. Yet the ability of our civilization to do that is now in question.

The Nov. 15 seizure of an Arabian oil tanker by armed Somali thugs off the Kenyan coast is just the latest incident.

Today oil, tomorrow Japanese TVs.

Yet the Navy finds itself helpless to stop the attacks. The taking of Sirius Star makes 95 international vessels hijacked this year, triple the number last year. Pirates now hold 17 freighters and 339 crew members hostage - and no one can do a thing about it.

But why?

With no better answer, companies quietly pay the ransoms. Meanwhile, America's NATO allies fear that, if they arrest irregular fighters like pirates, they'll be accused of violating someone's "human rights."

Are you believing that?  Read the last paragraph again.  That's European thinking.  And they look down on us.

History teaches that the only way to destroy pirates is from the land, not the sea - by wiping out their bases.

Those bases are in a nation that's been in anarchy and civil war ever since President Bill Clinton pulled US troops out of Mogadishu in 1993.

Read that one again, too.  That's what happens when you lose.  Losing is never cost-free, especially in international relations.  The surrender-in-Iraq crowd never understood that. 

The Somali government can't impose law and order. It's up to America and the international community to do the job:

* All nations will need to agree not to pay the Somali pirates any more ransoms, which has only encouraged the banditry. And they'll need to force corporations to say no, too.

* The Fifth Fleet will need reinforcements - not more ships, but a Marine Expeditionary Brigade that can wipe out the pirate bases once and for all.

Time for kinder, gentler measures may be running out.

Why is this so important?

Chaotic Somalia is ripe to become the next al Qaeda base. Until now, the country's Islamic fundamentalist militias have been hostile to the pirates. But evidence suggests that at least some ransom money has found its way into the coffers of Al Shabaab, a group on the US terrorist list...

...When the terrorists realize that they can not only enrich but also arm themselves through piracy - and hold the world ransom by threatening to blow up oil tankers in the world's strategic waterways - the seizure of Faina and Sirius Star may signal a new, horrifying chapter in the War on Terror.

And there's only one thing to do.

Get ready to add some new words to the Marine Hymn.

But it would mean Barack Obama taking action against an African nation.  Well, actually, he'd have the credibility to do it.  But will he use that credibility, will he use up those points?   Or will it take some maritime catastrophe?  We await the new administration.

November 20, 2008.