America must avast the scallywags

“Shoot ‘em in the head,” my dad used to yell at the TV from his La-Z-Boy to the cops chasing bad guys on the infamous television program “Cops” .

Maybe it is that early childhood outlook bestowed upon me from my father that makes me say the same about the pirates that wreak havoc on the waters near Somalia – “shoot ‘em in the head.”

In light of recent events, where American Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage by four Somali pirates and held from early Wednesday, April 8 until Sunday, April 12, it has become obvious that a precedent must be set for how future situations will be handled.
Since taken captive, Phillips became the talk of everyone from bloggers on the Internet all the way to President Barack Obama.

With more than 200 mariners taken captive in a given year by pirates off the coast of Somalia – and that number rising – America has to take a stricter stance on the treatment of these criminals. 

Five days with a gun to your head is simply ridiculous when we have the faculties to take multiple hostiles in a hostage situation down in one swift minute.

Navy SEALs are trained to do just that. So why waste valuable resources and put innocent lives at risk when a SEAL could take a pirate down as easily as he could count to three?
Some may say you can’t fight fire with fire and you can’t take an eye for an eye, but nothing is going to change for the better until a tone is set, which will defer piracy for a real and lasting impact.

This in itself won’t deter the pirates from continuing their escapades in search of loot from the ships sailing the waters.

This is evidenced by the hijacking of two Egyptian fishing boats only hours after Phillips’ rescue.

By no means is this a long-term fix that I propose – that would mean a whole lot of lives taken in the name of making a point, which I don’t believe in.

But I do believe in a little “muscle flexing” in the name of showing those pirates what they are up against. 

If anything, Americans should be setting an example for the rest of the countries that send their shipping boats through those waters.

Mess with us and we will mess with you right back.

In all honesty, what really needs to happen, alongside sending our SEALs out there to show them what we’re made of, a long-term plan needs to come into effect to stop the need for piracy at all.

Somalia offers little in the way of jobs, especially decent paying ones and with one hijacked boat equaling somewhere near a million-dollar ransom it is easy to see why piracy is such a lucrative business.

Not to mention the money that can be made through the sell of goods on board the ships.
That adds up to the big bucks – but not for the hijackers.

Most of the people who actually do the hijacking don’t reap the benefits and profits go to head clan members who arrange the incidents. 

If more appealing jobs are made available to these people who are doing the dirty work of others – something where they won’t have to risk getting their heads shot off by a trained sniper – clan bosses won’t have anyone to continue their work and piracy will decline.
Long-term solutions plus immediate action can work to alleviate the need for anymore cries of “shoot ‘em in the head.”