Ron Paul is advocating issuing Letters of Marque to private ships to allow them to fight the piracy near Somalia. Forgive me if I misunderstand his proposal, but letters of Marque are traditionally legal permission to a nations shipping fleets to attack, destroy and seize the ships belonging to another nation. This permission would lead to professionalizing known as privateering. Famous examples of privateering would include Henry Morgan of Captain Morgan spiced rum branding fame or Francis Drake.
I heard 'Boss-Limbaugh' talking up this idea and he told his audience to "Think Blackwater."
According to Wikipedia:
A letter of marque is an official warrant or commission from a government authorizing the designated agent to search, seize, or destroy specified assets or personnel belonging to a foreign party which has committed some offense under the laws of nations against the assets or citizens of the issuing nation, and has usually been used to authorize private parties to raid and capture merchant shipping of an enemy nation.
Limbaugh made some references to 24, that I didn't understand as I don't watch that show, but the point was clear. Limbaugh thinks it's a good idea to grant private industry the legal authority to seize foreign vessels for profit.
My questions are these:
What happens if the 'Blackwater Maritime Security Division' (*AHEM*) discovers this is a very profitable business model?
What happens when they inevitably make a mistake?
Will lobbyists be coming up with arguments to expand this program? (Privateer, Baby, Privateer!)
Will Backwater purposely create international incidents to create an excuse to expand this program?
It would not be difficult to come up with situations where this kind of activity could quickly and unintentionally lead to war. This may have been an acceptable consequence in the 17th or 18th centuries, but in the nuclear age, unintentional war must be avoided at all costs.