The problem continues… pirates brazenly attacked another U.S. ship just days after Captain Phillips’ rescue, and many other ships continue to be hijacked with every passing day.

Last year, Somali pirates carried out over 100 attacks on ships traveling around the Horn of Africa.  Currently, there are 17 captured ships and more than 250 hostages awaiting ransom, not afforded the kind of spectacular rescue that saved Captain Phillips’ life – or the tragic one that left Florent Lemaçon dead.  Captured ships have included massive oils tankers, and ships carrying caches of expensive weapons and ammo.

Unveiling a four-point plan last week, Secretary of State Clinton announced she is bringing together the State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department and intelligence community members “to consider recent events and potential responses,” and is calling for prosecution of pirates (the teenage ringleader of the attack on the Marsk, captured by US Navy forces, will be facing trial in a New York court) and the largely symbolic act of “freezing” pirates’ assets – a very difficult thing to do, since the pirates operate in an unregulated economy in a country that hasn’t had a stable government in nearly two decades.

Clinton said the administration will send an envoy to an April 23 Somali donors’ conference in Brussels.  With no effective central government since 1991, the country has become a safe haven for pirates, with no functional police force and easily bribed officials.  In the face of rampant poverty and few viable options for making a living, too many young Somalis are turning to piracy, and the Brussels conference intends to address all these root causes.

“The solution to Somali piracy includes improved Somali capacity to police their own territory,” she said, adding that the United States “does not make concessions or ransom payments to pirates.”

The reality however is that these ransom demands, sometimes as high as $3 million, are generally paid by U.S. shipping companies and considered a part of the cost of doing business in the region.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the continued willingness to pay these ransoms is hurting our ability to fight the Somali pirates.

Clinton spoke last week of “hot pursuit,” referencing a policy authorized by the U.N. last December but largely undiscussed in America – going after pirate bases in Somalia.  But after President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at nation-building in 1993 which left 19 Americans and over 1,000 Somalis dead, and the horrors of the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006, Americans have little desire for another fight for Mogadishu.

Not surprisingly, Gates has recommended a civilian plan focused on restoring stability in concert with any military action.  He was adamant that until the situation is Somalia is improved, “we can put a lot in jail, and we can kill a lot, but there’ll still be more.”  Further, Gates is advocating a more flexible, lightweight military approach to the pirate problem; “As we saw last week, you don’t necessarily need a billion-dollar ship to chase down a bunch of teenage pirates.”

Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa, covered with tiny villages and ports, making naval control a near impossibility.  But while the solution obviously cannot be purely military, this is a real and growing problem that will require intervention from the U.S. as well as the international community.  Perhaps we can encourage China to use its growing navy to spend more time fighting piracy and less time harassing our ships.

But we should make no bones about it – piracy is terrorism.  Despite the lack of religious extremism on the part of the criminals,  the problem is the same.  Exploitative chicken-hawks use and abuse impoverished youths for their own twisted benefit, and we often pay the price.

Thomas Jefferson understood we cannot tolerate piracy, and so must Barack Obama.