Here's a headline that hasn't been written in several centuries: an international flotilla of warships is converging to battle piracy.

U.S. warships watched a hijacked vessel laden with tanks while other gunboats patrolled the dangerous waters off Somalia, but pirates still seized another freighter this week — and now hold about a dozen despite the international effort to protect a major shipping lane.

Military vessels from 10 nations are now converging on the world's most dangerous waters, but analysts and a Somali government official say the campaign won't halt piracy unless it also confronts with the quagmire that is Somalia.

The continued seizures of vessels — despite the presence of U.S. warships — highlights the difficulties of patrolling the waters off Somalia. The chief concern is that the brazen attacks could fuel terrorism and make one of the world's major shipping routes too dangerous and expensive to traverse. Insurance rates for sailing in the area zone already have shot up tenfold in a year.

I've written diaries in the past that detail how the Bush Administration was instrumental in causing much of Somalia's bloodshed and chaos of the last 5 years, but its outside of the scope of this site.