Everyone loves pirates, right? Johnny Depp was dashing, and Errol Flynn made women swoon. The Somali pirates, though, seem to have everyone captivated. (Or maybe that’s just “captive.”) In any event, after snagging some tanks from the Ukraine earlier this year, and grabbing up 25% of Saudi Arabia’s daily output of oil yesterday, they seem to have hooked themselves an Iran-bound grain ship.
I have to admit that I’m a little befuddled about some of the printed response I’ve seen, such as was in the Times article linked above. Apparently, governments are saying that they’re powerless to stop the piracy. There are few things in the world to which universal jurisdiction applies, but piracy is one of those things. The situation is highly bizarre.
