Fight fire with fire

By The Montana Standard News Services - 11/24/2008

The Saudi Arabian company negotiating with Somali pirates who brazenly captured the biggest prize in modern history does the world no favors. This global problem needs a coordinated, global response.

Negotiating away individual problems only arms these pirates so that they become more capable of hitting bigger and bigger targets. This cycle needs to be broken, and joint agreements on military protocol in piracy cases may help break it.

When an Indian ship was threatened, it answered fire with fire, sinking a suspected pirate "mother ship" and chasing off two smaller boats. The Indians made clear that lawlessness would not be rewarded. The Saudi response — negotiating — simply encourages more deadly acts. Yes, the Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever hijacked and carries 2 million barrels, or about $100 million worth of Saudi oil. But the key to squashing piracy is a coordinated, multilateral response that rules out negotiations and is heavy on law enforcement and military action. It must be the ultimate "zero tolerance" policy.

After 9/11, the Bush administration set up a special maritime task force to patrol the vast east African coastline, an essential effort but somewhat equivalent to searching for a lost coin on the beach. Ultimately, all nations in the region have to better police their waters and deny sanctuary. If they don't, these criminals using failed states like Somalia as safe havens only become more formidable. A recent United Nations report estimates that Somali pirates this year have coerced nearly $30 million in ransom, enough to buy lots of weapons and influence.

In the treacherous Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia, pirates attack about 1 in 10 ships traveling this route from countries that produce about 7 percent of the world's oil. It's only a small step to the possibility of alliances with ideological terrorists, who would have no second thoughts about destroying oil supplies in the region.

Since antiquity, the world's navies have hunted down pirates who preyed on commercial routes, answering fire with fire. It's time to do that again, only this time with a coordinated, global effort.

— The Dallas Morning News