Blockade the Pirates!

Stand to, me lads! Peter Fromuth in The Washington Post suggests that to close down the rash of pirate attacks, international forces should blockade the pirates' ports of supply. A legal basis for such action already exists: the UN Security Council has a six-month permission to use force against pirates in Somali territorial waters, and the logistics are, apparently, easy. "One small naval ship per port," Fromuth writes, "equipped with a helicopter and smaller boats, would suffice." This is far cheaper than the price pirating currently exacts on the global economy. "Separate the pirates from those havens," he writes, "and their cost-risk ratios may once again favor fishing."