U.S. Navy warships supported by helicopter gunships tracked four Somali pirates and their American captive off the coast of Somalia. On Easter Sunday Navy snipers killed three of the pirates and freed the American captive. To many the story should end with this Easter give of a man returning to normalcy, but unfortunately this cannot be, at least if we aim not to allow similar incidents occurring again.

First off, credit to Phillips, who ordered his men to lock themselves in a cabin and allowed the pirates to take him hostage in order to save his crew. In an Easter season there can be no better example for a person who gives himself for the life of others to be saved.

Then the begging Question!

The area off Somalia's coast is one of the world's busiest waterways and one of the most dangerous to international shipping. As such can we surrender the water ways to thugs? Or may be a better question; can we only protect the water ways and abandon the people on the "roadsides" of this water war way? Ask me for the answer and I will walk down the early way screaming No and no and no again and again!

French naval forces intervened Friday to free a sailboat and liberate hostages captured by Somali pirates, but have contributed not a single penny towards the stabilization of Somalia as a country.

On Saturday an Italian tugboat was seized off Somalia's northern coast with 16 crew members, including 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croatian, according to the Italian company that owns the ship. Where are you Italy? Shouldn't we be better of treating the cause that chasing the symptom on high seas?

These modern-day pirates who operate from bases in Somalia, a country where law and order is absent, are cause for serious concern. Aside from the threat of piracy to the world's busiest shipping lanes, the pirates add to the general state of instability in the region. These fellows have business interests extending into down town Nairobi and have established a trading cell in Kampala. With pressure growing on Islamist movements in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arab world, the Horn of Africa offers Islamists an ideal location where they can re-establish themselves and prosper. Considering the fact that the level of Democratic governance in the targeted two countries of Uganda and Kenya remains flimsy and poverty is thriving thus, the grounds seems to be soundly fertile.

Local militias, many of them adherents of strict Islamist theology, offer a fertile breeding ground to al-Qaida and its affiliates. Now that President Obama is focused on Afghanistan it won't take long for the Islamist militants to return to the common grounds of the horn of Africa and carry on their deeds of yesterday.

The solution to the Somali pirate crisis requires a two-pronged approach, both military and political, that must be implemented in tandem; otherwise neither is likely to produce any concrete results.

The first step requires a joint Special Forces task force to strike at the rear bases used by the pirates and to destroy their seaborne crafts, thereby basically crippling them. This can be done by providing military support to the Somali government through the AU forces.

The second step would necessitate an aggressive economic restructuring plan for the country in order to create jobs for those who might be tempted to follow in the footsteps of the pirates.

The United States, the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Japan, India, China and Russia all have vested interests in security putting an end to this ongoing threat to international shipping in one of the world's most traveled shipping lanes. Hallo UN; bring them together and craft a program for Somalia, but it must be minus the usual bullying of the northern hemisphere powers. This by the end of the day will be a far more logical approach and quite inexpensive.