# U.S. Navy should do more to fight high-seas piracy **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 18, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926 "2006-03-18T19:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/41 "2013-09-07T00:36:17Z")
Went to this anti-maritime piracy legal seminar today: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/cwru-conference-idUSnPNDC64120+1e0+PRN20130814](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/cwru-conference-idUSnPNDC64120+1e0+PRN20130814) Pretty interesting. Key points made: - Somali piracy is down - Piracy off the western African coast is getting worse - Piracy elsewhere in the world (esp. off the Indonesia and India coasts) is just about as bad as it’s been for awhile - The countries which agreed to prosecute and imprison pirates (primarily Mauritius, Kenya and Seychelles) are hard-pressed to keep up with their caseloads, and could use more financial help from the U.S. and other countries with large merchant fleets - Having armed guards aboard merchant shipping has been very effective in staving off pirate attacks, but the shipping lines gripe about the cost - The Somali political situation seems to be settling down, and there’s some good economic development work going on, but… - Once the international naval deployments are drawn down, probably about a year from now, Somali piracy just might come roaring back anyway. I’d be glad to answer any questions about the conference. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/42 "2013-09-07T00:41:47Z")
Any movement towards changing piracy laws to allow for UN led efforts to squash piracy? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/43 "2013-09-07T00:44:05Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Any movement towards changing piracy laws to allow for UN led efforts to squash piracy? There were discussions a few years ago on setting up a UN international criminal tribunal just to focus on piracy, but given the glacial pace of such prosecutions re: the former Yugoslavia and Liberia, the consensus seemed to be that there wouldn’t be any particular point in doing so, and that national courts could do just as good a job, and faster. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/44 "2013-09-07T00:46:59Z")
And it should be the US Navy’s job to police the waters of other nations WHY? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/45 "2013-09-07T01:10:38Z")
The US Navy should do no such thing. Ships vulnerable to piracy should provide for their own protection. I have no interest in quasi-mercantilist systems in which the US Taxpayer is subsidizing overseas trade. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/46 "2013-09-07T01:20:37Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > And it should be the US Navy’s job to police the waters of other nations WHY? The thread title, and the OP, refer to the high seas. The U.S. has the biggest navy in the world; piracy has, since Grotius, been regarded as a crime against mankind and not any particular nation; suppressing piracy is traditionally the function of the biggest and most capable navy; and, as **Spacekat** noted above, fighting piracy is good practice for any peacetime navy. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/47 "2013-09-07T01:46:44Z")
I know you said High Seas, but international waters off the coast of Bumfuck Nowhere that have nothing to do with American Security interests aren’t really our business to patrol or our costs to bear. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/48 "2013-09-07T01:57:30Z")
Was there any discussion of which nation’s flag a ship carries? Before we committed the US Navy to protect ships, I would like to see those ships flying US flags (and therefore paying US taxes to help defray the costs). Not saying that we should not protect everyone, but it would be a lot easier to rally Americans to protect shipping if the all of the shipping lines were not out of Liberia. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/49 "2013-09-07T03:01:32Z")
With one of his better/more entertaining ideas, Ron Paul tried to get a law enacted that would bring back the Letter of Marque for use against terrorists and pirates. > **[Ron Paul's plan to fend off pirates](https://www.politico.com/story/2009/04/ron-pauls-plan-to-fend-off-pirates-021245)** > > Private citizens could keep international waters safe. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926/50 "2013-09-07T04:45:42Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Was there any discussion of which nation’s flag a ship carries? … Just a little. But the international naval task force protects ships of any flag: [Combined Task Force 150 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Task_Force_150) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-navy-should-do-more-to-fight-high-seas-piracy/348926.md?page=2)