Pirates take American yacht...what to do?

[mike_s]

If only that were true I'd be the first to endorse it. The fact is that there's a continent-and-a-half of people with nothing to lose, and governments that barely qualify as such. Take out one pirate mother ship and there are a dozen more to take its place, fully crewed. If we bombed Somalia for the next six weeks we'd kill millions of innocents and not change a thing. There are Yemenis, Ethiopians, Djiboutians, etc. all equally desperate and all happy to pick up an AK-47 in exchange for a square meal or two.

I can agree with that. it's like taking out a drug dealer on a corner. tomorrow another will take his place.

The issue here is that the pirates are the henchmen, being run by "bosses" on shore, who finance their operation, have accountants, etc... taking out the point men is only part of the solution.

Do you think these four Americans attracted any attention refueling in Djibouti?

They were enroute from India to Oman.

Djibouti is several hundred miles out of the way on that route. (they were not going around the cape).


I'm sure they refueled somewhere, but I'm doubting it was Djibouti.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Take out one pirate mother ship and there are a dozen more to take its place, fully crewed.

Why waste your time on a single ship? I definitely say that is a waste of time. Hit'em where they congregate and make it worthwhile.

 

[robbcayman]

This just ticks me off. They need to start setting up decoy ships and when the pirates board the ship, unleash hell on them. It's vital that they film this and send it to all the media outlets every instance that they kill these punks. They will soon learn that this isn't a profitable business model.

Furthermore, there must be no more negotiating with these goons. If it works one time, it gives them hope they can make a fortune.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

What leash are you talking about? We have over a hundred thousand military men out engaging various enemies right now. The problem in Afghanistan, iraq, Pakistan, and off the coast of Somalia is identifying them. Yes, it's frustrating to see pirates get arrested, but the idea that killing them would be a huge deterrent is a bit naive--life is cheap in Somalia. This is the same naive frustration that cost us a trillion dollars and thousands of lives in the wake of 9/11. Let's attack somebody and solve the problem. As we should have learned by now, no matter how many we kill, there are always more volunteers. Americans are going to have to learn to deal with a new reality: we don't have an unlimited capacity to police the world and rid it of "morons."

While I do not like the prospect of our country policing the world, and I detest the past usage of our military as such, I do support our government in protecting it's citizens and commerce. While it's difficult to determinwe who the priates are, when they are located, and bases or ships of operational support are determined, and they can and are determined, then those ships should be sunk, the pirates executed, and the bases blasted off the face of the planet. If life is cheap, let them run out of life. Prosecution of pirates is about the only thing the East India company did right in my book.

Guard American ships, either with marines or mercenaries on board. Back them up with navy vessels and helicopters. Charge them for it. If a private yacht wants to sail those waters, let them pay the same amount that a tanker carrying a million barrels of oil does.

So in one post you are saying that our service men and women are too valuable, their lives too important, yet now you relegate them to mere guard duty? There are already private companies offering that same service, blackwater or Xe or whateveer they are calling themselves thsi week to avoid prosecution, yet the problem persists, despite three or four navies and untold fleets being present in the gulf area at any given time. Those same fleets offer protection to any ship willing to follow their distinct rules. Not many takers. When we do find pirates, we often jail them in faux criminal courts, seize their guns, sink their fishing boats, and that's it. We haven't made a serious example of any of them. We just jail them and give them a better quality of life than they used to have. If we start executing them and dumping their corpses in their country with warning leaflets, eventually, they will get the clue. Might take them a while. But its an investment worth the effort.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Do you think these four Americans attracted any attention refueling in Djibouti?

Personally I do not care what they did to attract attention. They were well beyond international waters when they were boarded. As far as I am concerned that should be treated as an act of war. I would fully support any government that unleashed hell on them.

 

[adurso]

Q-ship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[vladimir]

Personally I do not care what they did to attract attention. There were well beyond international waters when they were boarded. As far as I am concerned that should be treated as an act of war. I would fully support any government that unleashed hell on them.

Yeah, somehow I seem to have been identified as somebody who's against killing pirates. I'm not. I'm okay with killing pirates, sinking pirate ships, broadcasting executions--whatever works. I am just quite certain that none of that will work. Again, it's a million square miles of ocean. How many naval vessels does it take to police that? To know who the pirates are? I think it's a typical American knee-jerk reaction--let's kill some of them, let's bomb them, let's take our military off the leash. Well, nobody over there cares. Death is not a deterrent to desperate people--just look at Libyan rock-throwers facing off against Qaddafi's military. And Libyans are wealthy compared to Somalis.

The idea of never paying a ransom makes sense--remove that incentive, but that is almost as difficult to manage. When the Saudis had a supertanker worth a $100 million (or whatever it was) hijacked, you knew the ransom was going to get paid. But certainly no American vessel should pay a ransom.

Perhaps my idea of guarding individual ships is not workable, I don't know. The only argument I've read against it (from a credible source) is that they were reluctant to escalate the battle because thus far crews weren't being killed. I say, the battle has been escalated with these killings.

 

[DennisS]

This just ticks me off. They need to start setting up decoy ships and when the pirates board the ship, unleash hell on them. It's vital that they film this and send it to all the media outlets every instance that they kill these punks. They will soon learn that this isn't a profitable business model.

Furthermore, there must be no more negotiating with these goons. If it works one time, it gives them hope they can make a fortune.

I always thought using decoy ships was a great idea. Make sure no pirate returns to shore. Eventually when they realize that people that go to sea as pirates, don't return, they will get the message. They need to run seek and destroy missions on the pirates.

The current message is go to sea as a pirate, get lots of money, if you get caught, claim to be a fisherman and throw your guns over the side.

 

[mike_s]

The problem comes with the idea that these pirates deserve a court appointed lawyer and a "fair trail" in a nice warm & comfy jail cell for a few years....



If they want to live by the sword, let them die by the sword.

 

[mrbeast1414]

chuck norris