"'Ow do you know 'e's a pirate?" "'E LOOKS like one!"

[unixronin]

Since the end of August, Gortney said, there have been 50 instances where coalition ships have disrupted potential pirate attacks, throwing guns overboard and sinking small skiffs.  But in many instances they had to release the people on the ships because of the legal hurdles.

I put it to you that there is a simple solution to this:

"If we find you loitering with apparent intent in the shipping lanes, in a small boat with weapons, we will presumptively assume that you are a pirate.  Game over."

Comments

[msa.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I'm surprised the navies involved don't simply:

- Blockade the entire strait
- Notify all commercial shippers they need to go around for a few weeks.
- Warn any traffic in the area for the first week
- Sink whatever is left on the second week, and anything else that arrives in the next couple of weeks.

Then:

- Drop leaflets in the harbors they are camped out in, telling everyone to GTFO or face the consequences
- Send in the Marines and clear said port cities.

But I doubt anyone in the west has the balls for this. I'm not really sure what presents such a legal problem -- piracy has been punishable by death for centuries. And yes, when they can land oil tankers, I don't think pirates are a great threat to some very poor fisherman. There's no payoff in a small fishing boat, when they can get tens of millions by grabbing a tanker.

Small arms in international waters isn't the problem; the problem is that so many places restrict firearms that they'd have a problem putting into port anywhere if properly armed. So you pretty much have to let the military handle it -- I'm okay with this, sinking ships is what they do ;)