Outside View: To the shores of Tripoli

WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- Sunday's rescue of Richard Phillips, the skipper of the Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates brought home an old story. Pirates have been around since at least the days of the Roman Republic. Whether in the Caribbean or off the North African coasts, piracy has a rich and often exaggerated history, romanticized and popularized by Hollywood. But for sailors plying the ocean in and around the Malaccan Straits and the Horn of Africa, pirates have been a serious matter.
What appears to have been a highly professional dispatch of three Somali thugs and the capture of a fourth was hailed as a major win for the Obama administration. For those who advocate hitting these pirates hard ashore -- as the Leathernecks did in 1804 -- or at sea, this incident provided further evidence for strong action. However, as the U.S. Navy noted, the rescue of the brave captain could provoke a greater response by Somali pirates, who number in the thousands.
So what should be done to take on this longstanding scourge of the high seas and coastal waters?
First, and with deference to the scores of pirate attacks this year and the 200 or so hostages, Somali piracy represents a predictable rise in criminal activity and not a national-security danger or crisis. Second, there are sensible solutions that need not cost a great deal of money or require huge naval and maritime enforcement fleets deployed to the Red Sea or the Horn. And third, attacking pirates ashore with cruise missiles and airstrikes would be akin to hitting mobsters and criminals in inner cities with airpower. That will not work..more..http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/04/13/Outside-View-To-the-shores-of-Tripoli/UPI-87031239664486/