Quagmire! Media Despairs Over Pirates

Just two days after proclaiming Barack Obama a conquering hero, the media is back at it in full defeatist mode.

That didn't take long.

Stamping out Somalia's piracy scourge using U.S. warships or military force will be virtually impossible, according to maritime experts who said Tuesday the real problems lie ashore in the ashes of Somalia's failed state.

Fixing those problems could take decades, and the U.S. already tried intervening — 17years ago in a failed humanitarian mission that ended with helicopters shot down and dead US soldiers dragged through Mogadishu's sand-swept streets.

"It's understandable to find people yelling at their televisions, saying 'shoot them all or stop them,'" Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, managing director of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service in Britain, said of the pirates. "You have the might of international navies, and you can't end this?"

But sending in more warships is like "sticking a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound," he said. "The fact is, what you see at sea is a manifestation of the problems ashore in Somalia."

I'm not suggesting going in on the ground in Somalia. Some things are a lost cause. But is it out of the question that shipping companies cannot arm themselves with security and have strict shoot to kill orders after these terrorist bandits are given warning? These rag-tag punks are laughing at us while becoming very wealthy and all we're going to do is moan and say "oh gee, there isn't much we can do?"

There are choices: If you want to continue shipping through that are take measures to protect yourselves and fight back. Or avoid the area completely.