Aparently in 2001 and in 2009 Rand Paul tried to get the government to start issueing letters of marque to privateers to fight terrorists. I fully support this only because its awesome
@valleyforge
Relatively recently there was a call for this in some high profile US navy magazine, in the context of some chinese ships doing wierd shit. Although from some discussions around this I gather it's totally impossible in practice, mostly because privateering is against international law, and it requires cooperation from nearby ports to actually be feasible.
@timorl the US Navy has a lot of ports in places where this might be useful
@valleyforge Well, I am no expert, so I'll redirect you to the place where I read the discussion: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-march . Only the first section is relevant.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque
The issue of marque and reprisal was raised before Congress after the September 11 attacks and again on July 21, 2007, by Congressman Ron Paul. The attacks were defined as acts of "air piracy" and the Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 was introduced, which would have granted the president the authority to use letters of marque and reprisal against the specific terrorists, instead of warring against a foreign state. The terrorists were compared to pirates in that they are difficult to fight by traditional military means. On April 15, 2009, Paul also advocated the use of letters of marque to address the issue of Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden. However, the bills Paul introduced were not enacted into law.