Fields: Beat Pirates With Convoys Like WW II
By Sam Fields
Guest Columnist
The short term answer to the Somali pirate problem is reviving WWII convoys.
Reacting to German sub Wolf Packs, the Allies grouped merchant ships and protected them with destroyers and cruisers. The Germans were run out of the North Atlantic and supplying the Allies was full throttle.
The area of Somali pirates ranges a distance equal to the entire east coast of the United States. There is no way to have these ships travel individually and expect protection of western navies.
The answer lies in daily convoys accompanied by a navel vessel. One ship with a dozen Navy Seals and sharpshooters is more than enough to take on the five or ten pirates that presently constitute the threat.
In the long run we do need to look at the reason Somali fisherman have turned to piracy.
One big reason is large scale commercial fishing that has decimated the family fishing that has sustained a Somali way of life for generations.
April 13th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Better yet, have Naval destroyers anchor off the African coast and start shelling the pirate camps one by one until they’re nothing but rubble.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:02 am
This is a good idea. I wonder if it would really work.
The small boats the pirates are using might be able to evade the naval ships and get aboard a freighter before they are spotted, even with all the modern nightvision equipment.
It is worth a try.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Presumably radar would pick up the pirate boat.
But assuming they did get aboard the Seals are five minutes away. My guess is pirates would concentrate on more vulnerable targets such as those who choose to go it alone.
This solution is neither perfect nor permanent it is proposed as better than the current mess.
As for the suggestion of bombing on land; unless you have a specific target in mind I am not sure what you get other than venting. Keep in mind right now the world is on are side. Kill a bunch of innocent civilians and the war of words can shift against us.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
So Sam,
As you can see, those poor pirates are not going to take U.S. Naval action to protect those evil Americans lying down.
They’ve threatened retaliation and now they’ve attacked again, threatening to “kill Americans.”
Since they are firing real guns and real rockets at American ships it is nothing less than an act of war.
You can sit on your laurels and worry about what the world thinks of us.
Take a lesson from Jimmy Carter’s Iran debacle. Restraint doesn’t work.
The Navy and the Marines need to route these pirates out with swift and decisive action.
War of words? Action speaks louder than words.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Oh, and if you can’t take a lesson from Jimmy Carter’s failure, then take one from Thomas Jefferson’s swift and decisive action that broke the back of the Barbary Coast Pirates in 1804.