The website Politico is not exactly known for being a hotbed of sanity, but they have gone a little overboard with this lengthy espousal of Ron Paul's idea to have the US grant letters of marque to private warships and have them go put down the pirates around Somalia. Aside from the fact that we probably don't want the sea-going equivalent of Blackwater flying the American flag, how would these privateers make their profit? Capturing a zodiak runabout with four teenagers and five rifles seems hardly worth the expense of building, manning and arming a warship.
The article talks about the privateers receiving "bounty" payments, but I have no idea where they got that little dream from. Privateers captured ships and sold those ships and their cargoes. If they sank or burned an enemy ship they received nothing for their efforts. Some of those "letter of marque" sailors became very cavalier about just whom they attacked, maximizing their profits, and turned into... wait for it... pirates.
They point out that letters of marque were, "[u]sed heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812," which does not necessarily mean it is
a good idea to use them now.
And, minor detail, letters of marque were outlawed by treaty in 1856.
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