A couple of weeks ago, Somali pirates hijacked a cargo ship with 20 American crew members on board. Thank God and the Navy SEALs that they all got out alive. But will Americans be as lucky next time?

During 2008 alone, these thugs raided more than 130 vessels, resulting in 50 successful hijackings and millions of dollars paid in ransoms. With at least five well-organized pirate gangs off the Horn of Africa -- including the al-Shabab militia, which is a group of Islamic extremists that some people compare to the Taliban -- all seeking and splitting the spoils of these sea traders, isn't it time America better protects our merchant mariners in volatile areas, such as off the Somali coast? Isn't it time they are armed with better deterrents than fire hoses, rubber bullets and sonic weapons? Isn't it time our Navy SEALs reach land and cut pirates off at the pass?

Ransoms only enable these hooligans. And negotiations never work with them. We need to cut them off so that no one else goes missing in action. For proof of that, we only need to look back and learn from our revolutionary predecessors. Our Founding Fathers not only demonstrated how we need to rescue our citizens but also instilled the notion within these pirates that America never will appease or tolerate captors and that we never will pay their ransoms again.

Some might not know that America has been dealing with African marauding mariners since our inception. Though it's not a direct parallel, I believe we need to do as Thomas Jefferson did during the Barbary Wars, in which Muslim extremists, or pirates, from the Barbary States (Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, which were semi-independent provinces of Turkey) fought many countries, including the new United States, that they considered Christian nations. Continued...