Ninja dispatched to Somalia

It’s finally happening! The US Navy is going after the Somali pirates. I’ve been waiting months for this decision, and it seems like the naval brass has finally caved in to inevitability. I suppose this is as good a time as any, considering the pirates have just ransomed an oil tanker, and are probably gearing up to strike again.

Unfortunately, they seem to be taking a pretty half-ass approach to the situation. The multinational force, with more than twenty nations represented, isn’t going to really be attacking targets on land.

I don’t see how they can effectively destroy the pirates if they’re not going on the offensive; this approach seems like they’re going to be forced to be purely reactionary, attacking the pirates only when someone reports seeing a ship. If they could just launch a bunch of cruise missiles at docked pirate ships, I think they could end this threat pretty quickly.

Anyway, since this pirate situation is a little bit similar to the Barbary pirate situation from the beginning of the nineteenth century, here’s a great book to read: Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. As the title suggests, it’s about the creation of the US Navy through the construction of its first six frigates, among them the USS Constellation and the USS Constitution, partly for protection of US shipping against the pirates. It’s a really good book.