Maybe convoys off Somalia

We suggested in the Register editorial that arming the crews of commercial ships might be useful -- though truth to tell it could have drawbacks, like higher insurance premiums and complications at ports in countries that apply strict gun laws to ships' crews. I'm beginning to think, in part due to this WSJ piece, that the most practical answer would be convoys. Some 100 ships a day pass through those waters (both ways) and if they convoyed with a few warships, they would probably discourage piracy pretty effectively. There would be complications there, too. They would have to travel at the speed of the slowest ships, which is not optimal for some. But it would be a chance for the French, British and Dutch as well as the US navies to show their mettle, something they would probably welcome.

Good for the SEALs. Now what?

As this Register editorial argues, the Navy SEALs deserve the most significant credit for the successful end of the Somali pirate hostage situation, though President Obama seems to have handled his end of it rather well also. (I'm fascinated at the extreme partisanship we've slipped into an example being comments after this blog post in which people criticized me for criticizing Obama when I didn't criticize him at all. On both sides, either you've drunk the Kool-Aid or you're a traitor. I'm not sure where to place more responsibility; the right-radio people have been relentless and mostly focused on the trivial, but as I noted in this piece the Obamaniacs are something else as well.)

Don't know just what to do. The editorial suggests that commercial ships arm their crews for starters and see how that works out. Others suggest using convoys, which strikes me as pretty expensive but . . . And some think there will have to be raids on the onshore lairs of the pirates, but that would be more difficult than most advocates acknowledge or even imagine. The one problem with the way this incident turned out (besides encouraging the idea that the way out of problems is to kill our way out) is that it could encourage more magical thinking about the military.