How About a Congressional AUMF Against the Somali Pirates?

 Cliff’s column yesterday on the Somali pirates is great. Not only have they recently hijacked American ships and killed American citizens; he points out that they are presently holding more than 30 vessels and over 600 hostages.

 Predictably, they have been encouraged by the impotence of the “international community.” What ought to infuriate Americans, however, is the notion that we need a green light from that hopeless mirage to protect our citizens and interests. Thomas Jefferson, who of course was neither insensitive to the Opinions of Mankind nor without reservations about a robust, militarized central government, nevertheless saw no need to justify himself to some 19th-century version of Ban Ki-moon before, as Cliff recounts, dispatching the fledgling U.S. Navy and the newly created U.S. Marines to fight America’s enemies.

Cliff relates that national-security thinkers like retired Marine general Tom Wilkerson are thinking up creative theories to justify action against the pirates under international law. That’s great, but how ‘bout something more tried and true: A congressional authorization for the use of military force. As we’ve seen with the 2001 AUMF (under which we’re still at war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates), having an AUMF does not require the president to invade every country where the enemy operates, but it does endorse combat operations by our armed forces, permitting them to take the gloves off and treat the enemy as an enemy — i.e., to attack enemy operatives and whoever is supporting them.

The United States has never taken the position that the imprimatur of international law — as interpreted by the U.N. or professors of international law — is necessary before we exercise our right of self-defense. The only prerequisite is compliance with the U.S. Constitution. Given the menace the pirates have become, chances are that an exhibition of clear American determination and leadership would draw international support — just the sort of “coalition of the willing” that Cliff and General Wilkerson are talking about. But let’s not leave this to the creativity of people outside of government. Let’s have a little leadership from the people we elect to provide it: Congress and the commander-in-chief.

To be clear, I’m not talking about moving into Mogadishu to spend a quarter century trying to turn it into a sharia-lite version of Massapequa. I’m talking about Congress authorizing, and the president executing, exactly what General Wilkerson suggests: killing pirates at sea and in their safe harbors, and wiping out their support networks. If we don’t do that, we will always be playing defense — and Americans will continue being taken hostage and killed while the military negotiates with our enemies.