Why Don't We Hang Pirates Anymore?

A few days ago, Wall Street Journal columnist, Bret Stephens, wrote an article entitled "why don't we hang pirates anymore?" - regarding the world's failed attempts to curb piracy in international waters in the 21st century.

"Year-to-date, Somalia-based pirates have attacked more than 90 ships, seized more than 35, and currently hold 17. Some 280 crew members are being held hostage, and two have been killed. Billions of dollars worth of cargo have been seized; millions have been paid in ransom. A multinational naval force has attempted to secure a corridor in the Gulf of Aden, through which 12% of the total volume of seaborne oil passes, and U.S., British and Indian naval ships have engaged the pirates by force. Yet the number of attacks keeps rising."

The underlying problem seems to be that there is no underlying legal authority over this horrible problem. United States law only refers to instances in which American vessels are attacked and International law has very confusing verbiage which has made many conflicts complicated.

"Piracy, of course, is hardly the only form of barbarism at work today...and our collective inability to deal with it says much about how far we've regressed in the pursuit of what is mistakenly thought of as a more humane policy." A society that erases the memory of how it overcame barbarism in the past inevitably loses sight of the meaning of civilization, and the means of sustaining it.