by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bateman, Small Wars Journal
On Pirates and Strategies (Full PDF Article)
Let us talk about pirates, and piracy and viable options. But first, and most importantly, let us consider the ways to think about the problem. At least, from a military perspective. What follows is a brief primer that may help each of you form your own opinions about the various options offered by pundits left, right, center, military, political and everything in between.
For starters, lets get really basic. There are a lot of people now who read Small Wars Journal, and not all of them are professional military. Moreover, despite the existence of some damned fine doctrinal definitions, we have all seen examples where the same word means different things to different people. So to remove that area of potential error let me start by pointing out that no matter what Joint Publication 1-02 says, there are not just three levels of war, there are four levels of war. These levels are: Tactical, Operational, Strategic, (the only three the military acknowledges) and the highest, the Political level of war. That's easy, right? So that we all understand each other, let's do a quick hash of what these levels mean.
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We could announce we are giving up on our definition of moral standards and realize we must adopt those of their part of the world. Far more compassionate than killing, while more successful than setting free, would be to cut off a hand of each pirate we catch. Then before setting them free back where they came from, we give them a couple thousand dollars each to help keep them alive as an example to their countrymen.