The French Have It Right On Piracy

The commander of French naval forces in the Horn of Africa understands where the piracy problem must be solved:

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden will only be defeated by a strong government in Somalia, the commander of the French naval operation in the Indian Ocean said on Sunday.

"We will not end this phenomenon unless we have a Somali government that has the means to act on its territory to fight piracy," Vice-Admiral Gerard Valin said on the sidelines of a regional security conference organized by Bahrain and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
...
Valin also hailed the European Union naval mission in the Gulf of Aden as a major step in battling the surge in attacks and hijackings by ransom-hunting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, a crucial trade route used by 12 percent of the world's maritime trade and 30 percent of its oil.

"It is really a leap forward, since this is the first time that a coalition has been formed with the mission of fighting piracy," he told AFP.

The EU mission Atalante, a coalition that groups eight EU countries, began operations off the coast of Somalia on December 8 to try to stem the growing piracy, including the hijacking of a Saudi supertanker last month.

America seems to understand, too, but the proposed solution is a little perplexing:

The Bush administration will mount a last-ditch push this week to muster international backing for a relatively small U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia, in an effort to help stem piracy and prevent the resurgence of Islamist militants in the lawless East African nation, according to State Department officials.
...
The United States has already begun informal negotiations on a resolution that would authorize the transformation of the existing African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) -- which includes 3,400 Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers -- into a somewhat larger U.N. mission. The peacekeepers would be restricted to Mogadishu and other parts of southern Somalia, according to U.S. officials.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon concluded last month that even a larger and better-equipped U.N. peacekeeping force of 22,000 blue helmets would not be capable of stabilizing Somalia and that a much more powerful multinational force was needed.

But a spokeswoman from the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Nicole Deaner, rejected Ban's proposal Friday, saying it is not a "viable option" since no country is prepared to lead or finance such a mission. "AMISOM is an effective peacekeeping force and will provide a good starting place in developing and deploying a future U.N. mission," she said.

Perplexing, that is, until you read on to the end of the story:

The Bush administration has received support from China and key African countries, including South Africa, which have pressed the United Nations to mount a large new peacekeeping mission in Somalia. "All the experts who know Somalia say the chance of everything falling apart is great," said South Africa's U.N. ambassador, Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo. "Unless something is done immediately, the radical Islamic groups will be running Mogadishu again tomorrow with very harsh Islamic principles that they want to impose."

So, what this looks like is a piece in the War on Terror pie portrayed as the kernel of a piracy solution. Perhaps that's true, but just how long does the administration believe it will take?