U.S. Mulls Attacks On Pirate Bases

Why this hasn't already been considered is beyond me. Although attacking these pirates should well be a multinational effort considering these maniacs are hijacking ships from any country that happens by.

The US military is considering a plan to launch massive attacks on Somali pirate bases and create aid services for the people there to help stop the hijacking of ships off Africa's east coast, according to a new report.

The plan, reported today by Bloomberg News, would include helping Somalia create their own coast guard and train security forces to foil pirate attacks, Defense Department officials said.

The ambitious Defense Department proposal will be submitted to the Obama administration as they decide how best to tackle the increase in pirate attacks off the Somali coast.

What I don't agree with is going in there and training security forces. This lawless hellhole just invites a fiasco.

Blackhawk Down ring a bell, anyone?

The only way to make shipping routes safe from pirates would be to disrupt their support network on land, security analysts said.

"There really isn't a silver-bullet solution other than going into Somalia and rooting out [pirate] bases," James Carafano, senior research fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation told Bloomberg News.

Any military action against the pirates, defense officials said, would require the support of the Somali people, who have been hostile of foreign intervention in the past.

No kidding.

I think a certain Democrat realizes that today.

Islamist insurgents fired mortars towards U.S. congressman Donald Payne as he left Somalia after a rare visit by a U.S. official to the anarchic country, police said.

Somalia's capital Mogadishu is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. U.S. officials have avoided travel to the battle-scarred city due to constant fighting between factions there.

"One mortar landed at the airport when Payne's plane was due to fly and five others after he left and no one was hurt," Abukar Hassan, a police officer at Mogadishu airport, told Reuters.

The first order of business for these companies moving freight should be to amp up their own security. If we have air marshals on planes, why do these operations not have their own security?