Captain Richard Phillips Freed by Navy SEALs

Let's give credit where credit is due. A team of Navy SEALs has rescued Captain Richard Phillips from the Somali pirates who were holding him, killing three of the pirates. The operation was approved by President Barack Obama.

Apparently, according to Hot Air's Ed Morrissey, initial reports indicated that Captain Phillips jumped into the sea again for a second escape attempt. Unlike during the first, this time the Navy was ready. However it was later reported that the pirates were about to shoot Captain Phillips when the SEALs took their shorts. In any event Captain Phillips is was taken on board the USS Bainbridge, where he rested comfortably. Richard Phillips' family and friends in Vermont and his crew, now in Kenya, are naturally jubilant. One Somali pirate is in the hands of the US Navy.

Kudos, of course, go to the Navy SEALs who took out the Somali pirates and rescued Captain Phillips. Kudos also go to President Obama for authorizing the operation and not persisting in adhering to the diplomatic route. There is no word as of yet into what factors went into the President's decision, but he deserves credit in letting the military do its job.

The Somali pirate hostage crisis serves as a valuable lesson in how to deal with this scourge that is making life a hazard for sailors in the waters around the horn of Africa. Diplomacy and treating the Somali pirates as criminals to be dealt with under the rules of law enforcement will only make the problem persist. The Somali pirates have declared war against the civilized world, albeit for money instead of ideology.

According to an article about terrorists in the magazine Legal Affairs, which applies also to pirates:

"More than 2,000 years ago, Marcus Tullius Cicero defined pirates in Roman law hostis humani generis, 'enemies of the human race."'From that day until now, pirates have held a unique status in the law as international criminals subject to universal jurisdiction-meaning that they may be captured wherever they are found, by any person who finds them."

Simply put, pirates did not enjoy the rights that common criminals had and could be captured and disposed of out of hand. That is how the Romans dealt with pirates. That was how pirates were dealt with in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries. Thomas Jefferson did not regard the Barbary Pirates situation as a law enforcement matter. It was a war, pure and simple.

President Obama should follow up on his decisive action by authorizing the US military to go on the offensive against the Somali pirates. Their bases and ships should be destroyed. Their persons captured or killed out of hand. Then peace will return to the waters around the Horn of Africa and an example will be set, not only to non state groups (i.e. terrorists) who wage war against the civilized world, but those charged with fighting them.

Source: Hostage captain freed after US firefight with Somali pirates, Amy Fallon, The Guardian, April 12th, 2009

Captain Phillips freed, 3 pirates killed, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, April 12, 2009

The Dread Pirate Bin Laden, Douglas R. Burgess Jr., Legal Affairs, July/August, 2005