re: "Time to act like a state"

Tom Mahnken at FP's Shadow Government ("Notes from the loyal opposition") discusses the problem of Somali pirates.

Money quote(s):

"Piracy has grown in the waters bordering the Horn of Africa because states have failed to act like states and leaders have failed to lead. Whether military force is permitted as a response to piracy is, as my lawyer friends say, settled law. International law has recognized pirates as outlaws who may be killed on sight since the Roman Empire."

"The Obama administration's reaction to piracy in general, and the seizure of the ship in particular, betrays muddled thinking about the nature of the threat posed by piracy and the proper response to it. At least implicitly, the Obama administration appears to be treating pirates as if they were insurgents. Criminals (including pirates) represent a challenge of an altogether different sort. Whereas a mixture of political and ideological motivations drives insurgents to violence, it is the search for profit that fuels criminality."

&

"What the United States and those who wish to join us need to do is to drive up, rapidly and decisively, the cost of engaging in piracy. The successful operation to free Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates is a good start, but it is just a start. More will be needed to remove this threat to the global commons. Specifically, President Obama should give on-scene commanders permission to shoot pirates on sight. He should also authorize punitive strikes against the bases from which Somali pirates operate. Such actions, over the course of days or weeks, should be sufficient to drive the pirates off the seas."

re: "Humane Justice, Political Policy, and "Enemies of All Mankind" "

Galrahn at Information Dissemination ("Observations of an Armchair Admiral") puts modern anti-piracy policy into proper historical perspective.

Money quote(s):

"(T)he policy of the United States towards piracy is ignoring common law practice going back to the Roman Empire. When western elites today suggest the best way to handle "enemies of all mankind" is to capture them and hold a trial, a position that throws away common law practice for nearly 2000 years that has been "hang on capture without trial," it does raise legitimate questions regarding the reasoning behind this new policy that disregards history.

Rules of engagement is a condition set established by policy, but policy is also driving the legal consequences for pirates, which in strategic terms influences both the ways the ends of strategy the Navy must apply in dealing with pirates."

&

"At a minimum, political leadership who determines pirate policy should be asked to explain why this new policy, which everyone has accepted as ineffective anyway, is somehow better than the policy applied consistently over the last 2000 years when dealing with a pirate problem. For 2000 years, humans applied an effective policy of execution to deal with piracy, why reject success and embrace a failing policy? Has our nation become too sensitive to violence to even apply justice to what human history calls the "enemies of all mankind?"

The application of moral humanitarian rights for modern pirates produces a policy that raises questions regarding the judgment, capacity to govern, and wisdom of international policy makers. Are they enlightened, or foolish with the new policy? By applying moral humanitarian conditions that results in a policy every nation globally accepts as ineffective, and because the application of those conditions is for the sole purpose of favoring a moral humanitarian application of justice to pirates, the US pirate policy ultimately sacrifices the laws of the global social order in favor of giving human rights to the "enemies of all mankind."

Those who argue that violent justice cannot solve this problem ignore several thousand years of history that suggests otherwise. It is absolutely a fact that Somali piracy can be eliminated on land, but history also shows that the application of the common law practice of execution also reduces the activity of piracy significantly. In the 19th century the Royal Navy proved all prior history correct by applying common law, the result was that piracy globally was virtually eliminated. Westerners should question and give serious consideration to whether we are evolving towards progress, or away from it. History is a solid guide for the future, but does this policy learn from history or ignore history?"