[UnderseaLcpl]

Yeah, well this is what happens when the government is sent to do the private sector's job. This is a private matter that affects private shipping and should be handled by private security companies whose only interest is preventing/deterring/thwarting pirate attacks.

Unlike the private sector, governments have politics and media and public sector careers to consider on top of everything else, so this doesn't surprise me a bit. In the meantime, the Navy is wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer money to perform what is now an apparently impossible mission using enormous and expensive warships where a squad of private guards could do a better job. Out-f-ing standing!

I could fix this pirate problem within the space of a week. All you have to do is grant import concessions on stupid things like shirts with more than one pocket in exchange for land and legal permission for US security firms to operate from affected ports-of-call. Then all you have to do is get the message out. There would be a dozen private companies competing for protection contracts in a matter of hours, and they'd do it right because their job depends upon it. Within days, every shipping company along threatened routes would be contracting security services at bargain prices.

But then, none of this crap is really about finding a solution, is it? Much like the War on Terror or the War on Drugs, the current course of action is being directed more by sheer bureaucratic and political inertia than anything else.