Suspected pirates hold up thir hands in the Gulf of Aden in February. Somali pirates seized two more ships, brushing off their losses from deadly rescue operations and throwing down the gauntlet to US President Barack Obama after he pledged to curb piracy. (AFP/US Navy/File/Jason R. Zalasky)From New Wars:
The US and Western navies are seeking their identity in a new century with new threats looming to challenge their historical hold on the sealanes. From the Boston Globe and an article titled “The (smaller, faster, cheaper) future of sea power“:
When most of us think about irregular warfare, the images we have are Fallujah, or eastern Afghanistan, or perhaps Vietnam. But as the recent standoff with three Somali pirates highlighted, asymmetric battles aren’t just limited to land. And though the Maersk Alabama incident ended unequivocally in the favor of the US Navy, the image of a 9,200-ton guided-missile destroyer called into action against a lifeboat only drove home the sense that this isn’t really what today’s US Navy was built to do.
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My Comment: This type of conflict and warfare has always been around since the beginning of time. The difference is that our interconnected world makes all of these events immediately known and publicized.
This is a good post from New Wars and a recommended read.