The Fly: Strategic Analyst Extraordinaire

Well, it looks like someone was paying attention to me when I said that the solution to piracy was to send in the U.S. Navy.

The US Navy is preparing to assume command of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), freeing up the US Marine Corps (USMC), currently in charge, for operations elsewhere.

The CJTF-HOA has been stationed in Djibouti since 2002. The task force aims to disrupt violent Islamist networks in the area, including Somalia and Yemen. Thus far its command staff has been dominated by the USMC but the service is becoming overstretched as a result of the continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The interest is, with the ongoing war on terrorism, getting some of the forces that are here freed up by forces that are maybe less engaged elsewhere … and the navy is certainly well qualified to run the base," said USMC Colonel Dwight Trafton, the chief of staff for CJTF-HOA. "This will still remain a combined joint task force. I think what you will see is, instead of a core staff of marines like we have now, a core staff of navy and a navy commander."

If you'll remember from the earlier post that I've linked to, and the posts prior to it, piracy is on the rise along the Horn of Africa, and Somali pirates have hijacked a shipment of tsunami relief supplies. Not only does the U.S. Navy have a lot less to worry about in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has the kind of resources needed to eliminate piracy and some of the terrorism and instability that's going on in the region. It wouldn't take much, a couple of destroyers or frigates, to cut down on piracy, and considering that terrorist organizations like al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah often fund their operations through illicit criminal operations, this is a good solution.