Your Mid-Day Pirate Links

First, Capt. Richard Phillips, the captured commander of the Maersk Alabama, is the bravest man in the world right now, having tried — sadly unsuccessfully — to swim from his Somali pirate captors while the USS Bainbridge floats nearby. Why doesn’t the Bainbridge just pursue the pirate sanctuaries? Noah Shachtman explains, pointing out that the Littoral Combat Ships that Defense Secretary Bob Gates is accelerating in the new Pentagon budget really come in handy here, despite the troubles with the ship to date.

Then check out Galrahn at the U.S. Naval Institute blog, who fleshes out what a Naval capability for low-intensity threats like piracy would look like.