How thinking of terrorists as pirates can help win the war on terror.
 

This article is really worth the read.


AT FIRST GLANCE, THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PIRACY AND TERRORISM seems a stretch. Yet much of the basis of this skepticism can be traced to romantic and inaccurate notions about piracy. An examination of the actual history of the crime reveals startling, even astonishing, parallels to contemporary international terrorism. Viewed in its proper historical context, piracy emerges as a clear and powerful precedent.

http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/J...s_julaug05.msp

Nice piece of navel-gazing. The issue isn't which statute to use against ISIS, it's which combination of weaponry, diplomacy, and "government-building" will work to eradicate them. We don't seem to have found it yet.

Did ISIS even exist as a terrorist threat in 2005?

While reading the article brigandage came to mind.

Ah, the typical pragmatic engineer. Doesn't get 'soft power,' so dismisses it. But two things are necessary to any action: the physical ability, and the willingness. A legal paradigm relates to the willingness.

Oh by the way, as I was discussing in the other thread, law is the fundamental basis of civilization.

I specifically mentioned diplomacy (i.e., soft power). The article is more akin to the GOP argument that they key to defeating ISIS is only to snap your fingers and say "radical Islamic terrorist." If we labeled ISIS or Al Qaeda pirates, it would change nothing in the manner in which they must be confronted.

It is the same thing. Except people who stick on one target-designating label can get on board with the other.

Couldn't thinking of terrorists as pirates in effect romanticize them for some and potentially provide additional support?

I don't think they are literally saying call them Pirates but to define the word terrorist first. We still have not defined what a terrorist is.

We are not comfortable doing so, because such a definition might implicate us.

This sounds like the silly GOP claim that all we have to do to beat ISIS is call them radical Islamic terrorists and they'll just wither up and die.