. Significant among those attacks , pirates on Wednesday boarded and temporarily held a U.S.-flagged vessel , the container ship Maersk Alabama . The U.S. crew and its captain retook the vessel , but at the price of the captain becoming a hostage to the four pirates in one of the Maersk Alabama 's lifeboats . Several hours later a U.S. warship , the Aegis destroyer USS Bainbridge , arrived on scene and , as I write , the standoff with the pirates continues . What an embarrassing and frustrating event ! A bunch of maritime thugs brazenly seized a vessel flying the flag of the nation with the most powerful navy the world has ever known . The fault does not lie with the ships and sailors of Combined Task Force-151 . They have been given the proverbial mission impossible -- stop pirate attacks in an area four times the size of Texas with only three U.S. Navy ships and a total of 12 to 15 allied/friendly warships . Not gon na happen ! But embarrassment aside , there is real potential for loss of life and for continued attacks on vessels plying these waters . The issue is
Editor 's note : Tom Wilkerson is chief executive officer of the United States Naval Institute , a nonprofit professional association which describes itself as an independent forum for examining issues related to the Navy , Marines and Coast Guard . He spent 31 years in the military , rising to major general of Marines and , in his last assignment , serving as commander , Marine Forces Reserve . Retired Major General Tom Wilkerson says the U.S. should attack the pirates at their bases . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It is well past time to take a serious look at piracy off the coast of Africa . Initially , the U.S. ignored the threat , and when public outcry about our seeming indifference became louder , we formed a combined task force of international navies in the Gulf of Aden under command of a U.S. Navy rear admiral to `` deter , disrupt and thwart '' the pirates . Today , it is clear that initiative has failed . In fact , this bit of muscle-flexing did so little to intimidate pirates operating out of Somalia that they have actually increased the number of attacks in the last month