There have been 77 cases of piracy in the Gulf of Aden since the year began. How many other such instances in Arab orbit I do not know. And I also don't know how many piracies have taken place in the South China Sea. But of the 77 seizures by pirates at the gate to the Suez Canal ten vessels with roughly 200 crew are still being detained in Somalian waters, according to Monday's Financial Times.
Of course, a United Nations agency, International Maritime Organization, is in charge of this sort of mischief... but has done virtually nothing. Or actually nothing at all. There is a Security Council resolution (1816) which "allows foreign navies to act against pirates and robbers in Somalian waters." But it expires on December 2. Anyway, the bureaucrat who heads the IMO wants 1806 replaced by a UN mandated force to deal with piracy. I guess like such UN forces have dealt with genocide in Darfur and the Congo.
This is a joke, and I hope it does not receive the support of the next administration which is bound to have UN loyalists in it. A UN force would do nothing as almost all UN forces do nothing.
Pirate ships should be bombed and destroyed. Their crews are, after all, pirates. Once two or three of these vessels and those who man them are destroyed... no more of them will surface on the seas.