The only language Somali Pirates understand, is to taste their own medicine. A permanent armed air patrol, which could be implemented with relative inexpensive methods, at least compared with the ransom demands, would take care of this maritime pest with permanent results.

Good article a mixture of history giving a good back ground to open the article and to support it. Explained why the pirates were not dealt with as a military enemy. The author also explained about the cruiser and it's weaponry and how the Capitan conducted his assignment and his staff.
The article was also backed up by supporting material. These kind of articles are fun to read because it was kept lite but interesting and moving.

The pirates should not in any way be given room to operate. The approach by NATO or rather the explanation by the officers is so lenient that the people involved this dastardly act will not be deterred. More harsh measures are required.

It is a big game of cat and mouse...The Pirates need to be stop, because–they are going to increase the prices of things for North America and Europe if the shipping companies have to go around....

The international community has ignored the problems of the people of Somalia which resulted in a serious crime in the Gulf of Aden. I think the solution is not fighting the pirates, rather it is to help Somalia establish a stable government.

This issue boils down to semantics. The press and the military continue to call them pirates when, in fact, they are terrorists. Pirates bring with them romanticized images. There is nothing romantic about what these extortionists practice. They are, plainly and simply, terrorists!

Obviously history needs to retrace its steps and return to the methods of elimination that were used for pirates in the past. This is no time for cat and mouse or delicate treatment. Innocent persons are being terrorized and comerce and trade being interupted at the whim and pleasure of robbers. Vessels and persons operating them in the act of piracy should be ordered to halt. If they resist or refuse – destroy them. Period.

NATO should staff various merchant ships with a contingent of soldiers and surprise the pirates when they board. From then on, the pirates would be hesitant to attack, not knowing it the make up of their next victims crew, included soldiers.

Just got off one of the ships attacked by pirates off the gulf of aden. Naval patrols dont seem to deter somali pirates as attacks continue everyday close to the patrolled corridor.As experienced, pirates usually attack ships around 1 hour before or close to sunset. I hope coalition naval forces would intensify their patrols particularly for loaded tankers with very low freeboard as these vessels are easy targets for pirate boarding. And although ships are very thankful to have these naval patrols, how about on the eastern coast of somalia? Have they considered patrolling these waters as well?, isn't it that the supertanker Sirius Star was attacked 450miles off the eastern coast where no naval patrols are conducted ?!

I agree with Tony. The expense of hiring private firms to provide security for these ships would vastly outweigh the amount of money that these companies must pay as ransom.

I would imagine that the shipping companies or countries that are operational in these waters could collectively provide a scheme that would provide security rather than calling on the military of certain countries to do this. As you can see, the official military option has not been too successful to this point given the constraints they have.

Take care

give the military more authority to blast these pirates right out of the water! start using more force, and let the pirates know we mean business!

The only sure way to eliminate pirates is to patrol close withen 15 miles from inland and sink the pirate boats before it goes father out to sea....They will know we mean bussiness and no warning given...

This method will save on fuel for the protection for exporting vessels and no fear of the pirates of closing in to attack and mutetinize ....

Otherwise it will cost alot more like it is now to patroll......Iam sure the Governments of friendly allies that are patrolling can decipher which boats are not friendly and should put an end to the thieves, hostile millitants & worthless criminals.....

"Looking for pirates in a one million square kilometres of ocean"
What an idiotic statement.
Who needs to look fo pirates in one million km of ocean??
One needs to look for pirates where ships pass and no place else.
If the pirates like to frolic in the vast stretches of empty ocean, who cares.
One needs to protect commercial shipping from being hijacked and with the contemporary communication equipment available, the location of the ships should be pretty well known.
So where is the problem?
Why patrol randomly millions of square km of ocean?

The piracy issue is more nuanced than many people care to admit.

While Piracy is Bad, the facts are that unless they're actually shooting at you RIGHT NOW, there is little to nothing to differentiate them from all the fishing boats in the region. Even the weaponry isn't unique to pirates, as fishermen sometimes carry similar weaponry to protect their catches.

The expense of using military vessels to patrol *effectively* is far higher than most people realize. In general, if a military vessel doesn't successfully intervene in the first six minutes after pirates reveal themselves, there's not much they can do without killing hostages. If you look at a maritime map of the region, the scope of the problem becomes clear; if you look at a shipping map of the region and try to calculate the number of military vessels needed to stay within six minutes of all the commercial vessels at risk at any given moment, you'll find you'd need more hulls than the US Navy has afloat. This assumes heavy armed air cover.

No mercy for these worthless heathens! Once absolute identity of Piracy is suspected and confirmed....TAKE THEM OUT. The Pirates need to understand that the World we live in will not allow this type of behavior to exist.

This is an excellent article, for all the reasons various other readers' comments here identify.

I personally would like to see a stronger military response, but I do accept already what the Italian commander mentioned, especially the point that confrontations are often murky, filled with uncertainties, with danger to innocent boats and their crews a real possibility.

I wonder if the U.N. Security Council might authorize the pre-emptive capture of suspected pirate ships when they're found away from innocent ships alone - and to further authorize their damage or even destruction if they attempt to flee?

As for a functioning, strong government is Somalia being badly needed, or course that's true. But I fear we're dreaming if we think we're going to see that anytime soon, given the enormous complexity of the countless problems of establishing even just a merely minimally-functional government pose.

There might be one possibility that could do some good, though it itself is fraught with difficulties: arming merchant sailors, and allowing private yacht crews to do so. I imagine such a move would require that any sailor who wished not to be armed all the time, but to have even just hand guns, enough for every person aboard, easily accessible in case of need, might be helpful. Of course, each person would need to be thoroughly trained for reasons both of skill and safety, but that isn't a particularly onerous task, including not financially. (I worked a number of years, if a long time ago, in the private security area in the U.S., so have some direct knowledge of this, especially during the time I was both a field commander and chief of the company's Training Division for Uniformed Personnel-Armed/Unarmed.) It doesn't take many hours to make a person reasonably competent and safe in handling hand guns. If the pirates know they are facing trained, armed sailors, they might think twice.

Here's the plan:
Blockade the Somali coast. All Somali vessels turned back to shore. Two warning shots, the third to disable. Give the crews a chance to get off, dump them on the beach.
They want to fish? Once the problem is fixed. In a year. They can eat donations for now.
Burn down the Somali port facilities. They won't be able to dock the kidnapped ships or their own larger vessels.
Arm the merchantmen's officers. Rifles for the crew to be issued if attacked. Worked in the age of sail, why not now.

Shades of yesteryear, if there ie so much traffic in these waters,why not sail in convoys with a hired escort ship? The method worked in World War Two to discourage and eventually destroy most of the German U-Boats that were attacking the American merchant ships.Some of the escorts could be the military ships already assigned as support in these waters. The private escort expenses could be spread out amongst the various companies receiving protection services. Hey, its worth a shot.
Gary Flagg;
Buffalo,N.Y.

i think the US would prefer to be bombed or even bomb an expensive warship rather than try fighting with the pirates in speed boats.for these pirates to be defeated,thse big nations navies must use speed boats too.

uthiru,nairobi/tambua,hamisi,kenya.

The international community may want to consider some type of convoy system for commercial shipping passing through waters threatened by pirates. In that case, naval authorities would have advance notice of shipping schedules and could provide the necessary escorts for these ships.

There should be more arm international secuityies on board the cargo.