Pirates are maybe not so simple after all

Some time back, I offered the opinion that we could fix the Somali piracy problem by a quick military initiative. It's got much worse and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. It's particularly ironic that the muslim Somalis have now captured a Saudi oil tanker and a ship taking grain to Iran.

The problems, in addition to restrictive international law, seem to include the fact that the pirates hold a large number of ships and crews at this moment and military action would probably result in a great deal of death and destruction. The shipowners are probably less worried about the rule of law in general than their specific need to get their crews, ships, and cargos back intact.

There's the follow-on problem that since Somalia lacks what we would call a vibrant economy, or any functioning government, piracy is going to remain the career of choice for so many violent young men that suppressing once isn't going to do it. And a violent military intervention is likely to just make them more violent.

We had a solution, which was the Islamic Courts that ruled Somalia until we forced them out with the help of Ethiopia. Unfortunately, our substitute government can't govern. It's probably time that we stopped worrying about people who don't respect Jews and Christians particularly and concentrated more on who can maintain law and order.