Pirates, Iran's corrupt tyranny of mullahs and now international cyber attackers all seek to exploit economic and psychological choke points.

Geography provides Somalia's pirates with a throat to choke. Somali pirates pursue a strategy of attacking vulnerable cargo ships as they approach or exit a global maritime bottleneck, in this case Egypt's Suez Canal, which connects the Red and Mediterranean seas.

The Gulf of Aden, where the majority of Somali pirate attacks occur, lies between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Sea lanes to and from the Indian Ocean meet and narrow in the Gulf of Aden, making it a grand geographic funnel for the Red Sea and Suez.

Cargo vessels connecting Asian and European economic powers (India and China to Western Europe) face an expensive choice: either take the long, slow route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope or take the Suez shortcut but risk attacks by pirates operating from Somalia's convenient (and police-less) shores. The pirates, like wolves eyeing a cattle herd gathering in a valley pass, try to select the most vulnerable targets.

Now move north, and once again geography aids outlaws. The Bab al Mandaab, the strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, splits Yemen (on the Arabian peninsula) from Djibouti and Eritrea (in Africa) and further constricts shipping traffic approaching Suez. Continued...