Prevent War: Killing Pirates Won't Work

Prevent War: Killing Pirates Won’t Work

Topics in this message:

  1. Killing Pirates Won’t Work: Long-term strategy needed for Somalia
  2. Hill Update: Obama Asks for More Money for War
  3. Take Action: End, Don’t Escalate, the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
  4. Additional Resources
  5. New Resources at FCNL.org

1. Killing Pirates Won’t Work: Long-term strategy needed for Somalia

We at FCNL are happy to see that Captain Richard Phillips is alive and well. We’re surprised, though, that his rescue - which left his three Somali captors dead and appears to have turned piracy into a deadly international conflict, - is being portrayed as a resounding success. While the use of deadly force to save Captain Phillips may be a military success, it was a tragic strategic failure.

Not only was the United States unable to save Captain Phillips through negotiation and bring his captors to justice through a court of law, but killing his captors has escalated the threat of piracy and attacks against the United States and others. Immediately following the rescue, Somali pirate networks publicly began vowing to kill rather than capture U.S. and other international crews. The next day gunmen linked with an extremist group shot at the plane carrying House Africa subcommittee chair Rep. Donald Payne (NJ) as he left Mogadishu, where he had been pressing for peace and stability in the country.

Pirate networks may now be motivated to increase ties with other anti-U.S. criminal groups operating in the region, escalating the threat of attacks against U.S. and other international crews. A few days following the incident pirates launched an attack on another U.S. vessel, and some commentators are now urging increased military action by the United States in Somalia. The portrayal of the rescue in the U.S. media has clouded over the underlying issues which drive the problems of piracy and criminal networks in Somalia and beg for longer-term policy solutions.

While the press has fixated narrowly on piracy off Somalia’s coast and how to stamp it out, few are examining the causes behind the problems at sea. Piracy networks have flourished because of the ongoing political instability, violence, social upheaval, and economic deprivation in Somalia. Illegal fishing and waste dumping by large international ships threaten Somali livelihoods and provide a further justification for the pirates. A recent article in The Independent suggests European ships may even have been dumping nuclear waste in the waters off Somalia’s coast.

Rather than killing pirates the United States needs to develop a constructive long-term policy towards Somalia that addresses the underlying causes of both ongoing conflict in the region and the rise of piracy. Under the Bush administration U.S. policy and actions focused on stopping piracy and land-based extremist elements almost entirely through military force. That hasn’t worked. The piracy endemic continues, and land based extremist groups have flourished as a result of U.S. airstrikes, which galvanized support for Al Shabaab – a militant extremist group based in Somalia.

In a recent letter to President Barack Obama Senator Feingold – who chairs the Senate’s African Affairs Subcommittee – urged the president to overhaul the U.S. approach towards this troubled nation and craft a strategy "to stabilize Somalia and support effective governance." In addition, Congress should ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides an international framework for addressing criminal activity on the high seas.

FCNL is working with Quaker colleagues in East Africa to develop recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can better manage threats from violent networks while supporting efforts to stabilize and build peace in Somalia. Watch for a special FCNL policy brief on Somalia in the weeks ahead.

2. Hill Update

Last week President Obama requested $83.4 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bulk of the funding – $75.5 billion – is slated for military operations. However, the administration did request $7.1 billion for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), including funds to support increased civilian personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan; U.N. peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Central Africa Republic; humanitarian and development aid for Africa and South East Asia; and funding to help developing countries manage the global financial crisis. Congress is expected to take up the supplemental funding bill when it returns from recess next week.

3. Take Action: End, Don’t Escalate, the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

The House will soon consider President Obama's request for billions of dollars to fund the war in Iraq and expand the war in Afghanistan. Although the president has laid out a strategy in Afghanistan that includes diplomacy and development, the vast majority of the funds in this war supplemental bill will be focused on military troops, guns, and ammunition.

Urge your representative to take a hard look at the president's war funding request. He or she could play a key role in restructuring the president’s request to focus money on the kinds of long-term diplomacy and development assistance that could lead to a comprehensive peace in the region.

4. Additional Resources

Escalation of violence could lead pirate gangs to join radical militants (Christian Science Monitor)

The Most Dangerous Place in the World (Foreign Policy Magazine)

Obama Can Make a Difference in Darfur (Wall Street Journal)

5. New Resources at FCNL.org

Defense Secretary Gate’s FY 2010 Military Budget Proposal

The World at War (January 2009)