On 9/12 we discussed piracy and its relationship to terrorism. Here's a column on the subject from today's Post.
Pirates And Parasites
By Stephen Wrage
Saturday, October 20, 2001; Page A27
Two centuries ago, many states at war sheltered pirates. They gave them safe harbors to work from, became their sponsors, offered them the protective coloration of a flag and lent them legitimacy by issuing them commissions. The elegantly named letters of marque were no more than permits to prey on the enemy's shipping and take one's pay out of the spoils.
The British, with their dominant Royal Navy, took a dim view of the practice, but to the Americans in both the War for Independence and the War of 1812, privateering was an indispensable weapon of the weak.
A half-dozen states sponsor terrorists today. They give them safe havens, shelter them from arrest or extradition, assist their concealment and aid their movement of persons, weapons and money across borders. Terrorism is today's weapon of the weak.
There are pockets of piracy today, but the days of state-sponsored piracy are over. In 50 years we ought to be able to say the same thing of terrorism: that there are scattered violent predators at large but that the days of state-sponsored terrorism are over. The 11th of September may be remembered as the beginning of the end for the practice.
The beginning of the end for state-sponsored piracy came late in the 18th century, when increased trade between the powers of Europe made stable, cooperative relationships more remunerative than predatory ones. There was more to be gained from dependable, peaceful exchange than from furtive war at sea. Governments growing in strength wanted monopolies on force, so the brigands had to go. Piracy as a national industry receded as piracy as an international threat advanced.
Once that change occurred, only a provocative outrage was lacking before the stable, powerful states banded together to hunt the pirates out.
In the case of Mediterranean piracy, for example, overreaching demands for protection money, plus the spectacle of Muslim raiders from the Barbary Coast dragging Christians off into slavery, were enough to bring first an American Navy attack on Tripoli, then a British raid on Algiers. Finally, the French conquered and occupied that city in 1830.
Once the British cleared out pirate hordes in Crete, there were no harbors left for pirate ships in the eastern Mediterranean and no markets for the slaves and goods the pirates seized. Once state sponsorship ceased, piracy was doomed.
The sentiment that gave rise to piracy's rapacious greed did not vanish. Nor will the sentiment that gives rise to terrorism -- hateful resentment of the United States and the West. What withered was the willingness of states to sponsor piracy. The states themselves did not vanish, except in a few cases such as the parasitic Barbary states of Algiers and Tripoli. But leaders everywhere recognized a new set of interests that were better served by collaboration with wealthier powers than by exploitation and predation on them.
The pirates, abandoned by their sponsors, acquired a new character. Once useful, now odious, they took on a new title under the law of nations: hostis humani generis -- enemies of the human race. It is a title today's terrorists may soon share. After the 11th of September they deserve it eternally.
The crucial step is to isolate the terrorists from their sponsors. Fruit separated from the vine will wither. How to do this? Intercepting terrorists' communications in time to prevent an attack pushes our intelligence capabilities to their limits, but slowly building an irrefutable case that a government supports terrorists is much less difficult. Saddam Hussein may have to join Slobodan Milosevic in the dock. Airstrikes intimidated Moammar Gadhafi in 1983; more airstrikes may be in order.
The norm must be universally established that terrorists are vile and dangerous parasites, like pirates, dangerous to their sponsors and to their enemies alike. There may always be scattered terrorist acts, just as there is scattered piracy today in the waters off Singapore. But the practice of governments calling terrorists warriors, martyrs or heroes and lending them protection and support must end.
Once that process is complete, and it may take decades, the thousands who died Sept. 11 will not have died in vain.
The writer is a professor of political science at the U.S. Naval Academy. |
