How to fight pirates

What the world can do to stop Somali buccaneers

“Somalia is a great place to be a 21st century pirate,” said USA Today in an editorial. The East African “failed state” offers 2,000 miles of impoverished, lawless shoreline with 16,000 Suez Canal–bound ships passing by each year. The pirates get $1 million or more in ransom for each capture, but “paying off pirates signals weakness and begets more piracy.” Now pirates have seized a massive Saudi tanker with 2 million barrels of oil—and the world’s attention.

Since Somalia can’t control its pirates, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, it’s “left to the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world to police them.” The U.S. and its allies already have a combined naval force in the area, but the growing costs of piracy—both financial and in terms of encouraging lawlessness—require us to “push back” with more power.

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