The other day, a conservative think tank asked the government to send American pirates out into the seas to fight Somali pirates, and we all had a good laugh. Using Letters of Marque to license privateers is a crazy idea for any number of reasons -- it's hard to imagine what good could possibly come of encouraging sea-based vigilantism, which would lead to any number of countries endorsing privateer fleets of their own and, basically, chaos on the high seas. That said, here's how Politico kicks off its story on the topic and Ron Paul's inevitable support of it:
A little-known congressional power could help the federal government keep the Somali pirates in check — and possibly do it for a discount price.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.
Whaaaa? That growing number of security experts is, in fact, one guy from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the conservative group that came up with the idea in the first place, and an economics professor in Oregon whose ancestor was a privateer but appears to have no actual national security expertise. Only in the last paragraphs of the piece is it noted that this is a crazy idea that would never work. Meanwhile, Politico appears not to have covered the real debates around responding to piracy and failed states underway at places with actual national security knowledge, like Abu Muqawama, Danger Room, and, you know, the Departments of State and Defense. But if two radical libertarians and an economist in Oregon think we should do something insane, better get 1,000 words out there, stat!
Meta Commentary Alert: Obviously, Politico publishes this foolishness to get links -- oh look, it's the second-most read article of the day, another win for good journalism -- and here I am linking to them. What a maroon!
-- Tim Fernholz
