Menkhaus said the owners of the Maersk Alabama -- Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line Ltd. -- were probably negotiating a ransom with the pirates, as most companies do ...
There was no confirmation from Maersk Line that any such negotiations were underway. In its latest statement, the company said, "The Department of Defense and the Navy are handling any contact with the pirates."
Private shipping companies have generally preferred to pay ransom rather than arm their ships and shoot it out with pirates on the high seas. Doing so would invite pirates to use force and could escalate the problem over time. The companies are also motivated to keep ships unarmed by a concern the pirates seem to understand: money.
Putting armed guards on ships could trigger an array of legal and financial trouble for shipping companies. They might not be granted access to certain ports, for instance, plus the presence of arms on a ship sharply escalates the cost of insurance. Paying ransom -- around $150 million in total for shipping companies last year -- is still cheaper than insuring a heavily armed ship, or taking longer, alternative trade routes.
The death of a hostage in a French naval commando operation against another pirate ship seems to support Menkhaus' point that the use of force risks escalating the violence, although in that case the pirates had been threatening to execute the captives.
Other political and security analysts have said that the US navy is unlikely to back down:
"I think they're not recognizing the stakes that are involved in terms of credibility for the United States," said Daniel L. Byman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on Middle Eastern security and terrorism. "To back down in the face of what is, in some ways, a gang of thugs would look quite bad for the Navy and for the administration."
In an interview with VOA News, Dr. J. Peter Pham, Director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University, draws upon historical understandings of piracy to argue for a stronger military response today:
In a sense, there's a historical link between the USS Bainbridge and the Maersk Alabama incident. "There's a great irony in the fact that the vessel, the USS Bainbridge, the destroyer on site, is the one it is. Commodore William Bainbridge was actually the hero of the two Barbary wars, along with Stephen Decatur. And something tells me that he's probably rolling in his grave at the thought that a US destroyer has four pirates on a dingy without fuel and we're going into the second day of this without any resolute action," he says.
He says history shows that a military response can be successful, such as actions taken by the United States and other nations against pirates along the northern African coast in the two Barbary wars.
"That, for 200 years, has been a deterrent factor. No US merchant ship has been successfully hijacked by pirates," he says. He adds, however, "This time around, if the pirates get away with having hijacked, even unsuccessfully, a US flag cargo ship, it sends a very strong signal of perhaps a lack of will, especially in the case of Somalia where we know where the pirates are. We even know where the leaders literally live because they've built huge mansions that were put up in the last 18 months because of the piracy ransoms and revenues they gained," he says.
He says four UN Security Council resolutions and agreements with the interim Somali government allow the use of force. "If we don't root out these nests of piracy or at least send a very strong signal, we will end up telegraphing is a very strong signal of weakness," he says.
Pham says that any military strikes against Somali pirates can be very selective, such as destroying the pirate mother ships that launch speedboats or destroying the mansions built by the pirate leaders. He says before the mansions are destroyed, a warning should be issued telling occupants to leave, as Israel does in the Gaza Strip.
Although Obama has kept quiet about the high seas drama, this week's events have captured US attention at the highest levels:
Vice President Joe Biden said the administration was working "around the clock" on the matter. Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States will "do what we have to do" to protect U.S. shipping interests against pirates. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said: "We are bringing to bear a number of our assets ... to resolve the hostage situation and bring the pirates to justice." In West Palm Beach, Fla., Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the American military will increase its presence near the Horn of Africa "to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days."
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