Some NATO members, led by Spain, are urging a change in tactics against the Somali pirates. Spain wants the three ports, where the mother ships are based, to be blockaded (warships prevent any ships from entering or leaving), and greater efforts made to find and seize or destroy the mother ship (or ships) that are making the speedboat attacks possible far off the Somali coast. The foreign nations supporting the anti-piracy patrol do not want to go ashore and destroy pirate bases. That's because the Somalis are enthusiastic and persistent fighters. The Somalis have been pacified in the past, but using methods that are politically unacceptable today.
Perhaps one day we'll see a coalition of the willing that will convoy civilian shipping, blockade pirate ports, hunt down pirate mother ships, sink pirate speed boats, bomb and shell pirates, and even go ashore to destroy piracy-related facilities and kill pirate leaders. Heck, if it makes you feel better we can ever arrest some of the survivors and try them in court!
Depending on your appetite for doing something, surely there'd be a role for the meekest and the boldest with all these tasks to complete.
And for the land missions, perhaps a couple American Marine Expeditionary Units could spearhead an Egyptian and Indian brigade landing that goes into the pirate havens to put a little fear of the civilized world into the pirates. And if jihadis die, too, in the operation, I won't shed tears.
Egyptian and Indian troops could get away with this mission given their status as non-Western states. Each has an interest in pacifying the Indian Ocean's Horn region to, respectively, safeguard Suez Canal traffic and suppress private sea-going gangs that might moonlight by slipping men and material ashore in India. India would also like to minimize outside powers' navies in what they see as "their" ocean, which won't happen while pirates seize ships for ransom.
Yeah, I know. Killing pirates is so 19th century. But I guy can dream, can't he?
