By now, surely most of our readers have heard about the latest episode in the Somali pirate saga; namely that four Americans on a yacht named the S/V Quest were seized by pirates last week in the Gulf of Aden and killed yesterday while the Navy was attempting to negotiate their release.

From the Navy’s release on the event…

TAMPA, Fla. (NNS) — At approximately 1 a.m. EST today, while negotiations were ongoing to secure the release of four American hostages, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the pirated vessel (S/V) Quest.

As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.

“We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest,” said Gen James N. Mattis, U.S. Central Command Commander.

During the boarding of the Quest, the reaction force was engaged by pirates on board the vessel. Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained along with two pirates already in US Forces custody. The US Forces also found the remains of two other pirates already dead aboard the Quest. In total, it is believed 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking of the S/V Quest.

US Forces have been closely monitoring the S/V Quest for approximately 3 days, once it became known to be pirated. Four U.S. Navy warships comprised the response force dedicated to recovering the S/V Quest: the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65), the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55), the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett (DDG 104) and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84). The ships are deployed to the region to conduct maritime security operations and to provide support to operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.

This is the latest in a never-ending string of pirate attacks on civilized humanity coming out of Somalia. But if our president wants to show some strength and leadership, it’s long past time to do something about the animals there.

And the solution isn’t to deploy peacekeepers or engage in nation-building. It’s to engage in nation-killing.

Bear in mind that the pirates in Somalia are acting out of the same doctrine the Barbary Pirates acted out of before President Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines to the shores of Tripoli to put a stop to it. And the Barbary Pirates were acting out of the same doctrine that has animated people in that part of the world since 622 AD.

That doctrine commands its adherents not to cause trouble when they’re weak.

Which means they need a demonstration of how weak they really are.

It’s a bad idea to send in the Marines, because there is no reason to risk casualties in a butthole of the world like Somalia. We’re already taking casualties in another butthole of the world, Afghanistan. One is more than enough at a time.

But what we can do is bomb these people. Every port city and fishing village in the country where pirates are known to operate from. Level them. Make them unusable. Act with such relish and bloodlust as to shock the population into submission.

But whatever you do, do NOT send in troops or attempt to impose a government there. It’s not worth our blood and treasure. This would be a punitive expedition, not some grand humanitarian gesture. We tried the latter in the early 1990’s and got Black Hawk Down as our payment.

And for God’s sake, don’t take in any more of these people as refugees and settle them here.

Do it, Mr. President, and we’ll support you. There are bad people in the world and we have a very expensive, well-trained and well-equipped military for the express purpose of protecting ourselves from them.