I say Bomb the ports that unload pirated cargo.
Sean
Sean
The Somali Pirates
- Thread starter Bill Mattocks
- Start date
Empty Hands
Senior Master
Radar for a small boat, sometimes outboards, on heavy seas? Not a chance. As for standing watch, these huge ships nearly run themselves. Crews are kept at a minimum as a cost saving measure. That and the crewmembers rather prefer to stay inside where the ships are equipped with world class luxuries.
Now that I don't know.
Ninjamom
2nd Black Belt
Anyone see the movie, "Master and Commander"?
Would love to see a 'merchant vessel' fully armed and loaded with marines waiting for the hapless pirate who dares to try n board.
Would love to see a 'merchant vessel' fully armed and loaded with marines waiting for the hapless pirate who dares to try n board.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #24
LOL its pretty easy to tell I was never in the military! I was grading papers at the time. He talked like he was some hoi poloi though and he had written a piece about the pirates that basically said they were not much to worry about and that it was more trouble to go after them.
His points, (that I remember) were...
1. The US has not ratified the 1982 Law of the Sea treaty so it makes it very difficult to justify what we are doing to other countries who have.
2. It's harder then you think to tell a pirate from a non-pirate.
3. Blasting the Somalians again wouldn't look so good in the Muslim world...we are trying to win their hearts and minds remember?
4. The US Navy has more important things to do like support two wars and extend American Hegemony across the globe.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #26
Just FYI, 'hoi polloi' means 'common people'. Lots of people get it backwards.
Don't need to justify it to others. Our ship, our problem.
I suggest that the lack of an actual 'Jolly Roger' does not make it too difficult to tell when armed people make speed towards a cargo ship hundreds of miles from the coast of any nation.
Somalia is not a Muslim nation. Somalia has no central government, and the warlords that control various parts of it are trying to fight off a unified Islamic extremist group intent on imposing Sharia law. In this case, the pirates are actually against the Muslims, so blasting them should make the Islamists happy.
Protecting our ships and citizens from being hijacked is extending hegemony? Well, forgive the crap out of me, but I find that about as idiotic a statement as I've ever heard of a gold-plated squid's mouth, and that's for sure. That rear-echelon rust-picker is really full of it. No offense to you, my ire is directed at the deck ape who doesn't know his a-hole from his elbow.
Omar B
Senior Master
I love love love that movie (and the books for that matter). It's like the Star Trek movie that never got made. Funny thing is, a lot of people have come to that same ST/M&C connection.
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I'd like the pirates killed now, please.
Well, we're waiting...
Send in the Ninjas
Good comments, Bill. I agree. This surprised me because I've only ever heard the word in our current cultural context and I thought I knew what it meant. I wonder how the meaning got completely flipped? Anyway, I learned something new! Danke!
Oh yeah, kill the pirates.
The Indian navy did sink a pirate ship (apparently the pirates opened fire on a Navy ship, so they fired back). And on the BBC news this evening they reported that the US Navy is heading over, so maybe a war on pirates is about to start.
I was wondering last year after hearing about these pirates, is how did pirates manage to get so cool? All through my childhood pirates were considered a jolly bunch of slightly criminal, mostly drunk, sailors. Hollywood has made many films about them, portraying them as loveable rogues. I even have a pirate pop-up book! However, history has always seen them as nothing more than cruel, heartless, murdering thieves. Why did we make them cool? Is this part of the reason why no-one took them seriously for so many years?
grydth
Senior Master
Yet another Hollyweird fiction. Not too all different from their faux romanticizing of Depression era gangsters and Western outlaws.... most of whom were murderous psychotics.
You did not want to be on a ship pirates captured. For every actual 'gentleman' pirate, there were scores who'd as soon skin you alive as look at you.
You did not want to be on a ship pirates captured. For every actual 'gentleman' pirate, there were scores who'd as soon skin you alive as look at you.
Omar B
Senior Master
Yeah, where are the ninjas? Every time I read a Clancy book like rainbow 6 or Teeth Of The Tiger I secretly hope there's a team of dudes out there secretly keeping stuff in check. So no Rainbow, no ninjas? Whatever shall we do?
Oh, and don't get me started on Hollyweird. Pirates are cool? Robin Hood cool? A thief, you kidding me.
Oh, and don't get me started on Hollyweird. Pirates are cool? Robin Hood cool? A thief, you kidding me.
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Somebody page Chuck Norris.......
Omar B
Senior Master
He just left Texas to go handle this, and he's swimmin' ... dude's gotta warm up right.
Wild Bill
Green Belt
The captain is free and most of the pirates are dead. It's about damn time.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/piracy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/piracy
Omar B
Senior Master
Damn right! They are playing it close to the chest but I'm guessing Seals.
Me too. I'd been expecting them to go that way.
Let me take this opportunity to exhort all those pirates out there to NOT GIVE UP! Pursue the captain back to the USS Bainbridge and take him back! Send every man you have--set every dinghy, lifeboat, and raft to sail! Don't let them intimidate you with all that talk of it being an "Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer" or whatever. You can do it!
Omar B
Senior Master
When I saw that article about them being freed all I could think of was when I read the book Rainbow 6 and thinking how they could have pulled this off. Let me tell you, this could be a movie.
grydth
Senior Master
Perhaps the actions of the French Commandos and the US Navy Seals will signal the era of playing patty cake with pirates is over.
It isn't hard to fathom:
Don't use deadly force, pay huge ransoms = scourge of piracy.
The only pirates who return are bodies washed ashore = let's go back to fishing.
Here's to a speedy reunion of that merchant captain and his crew - who showed that warships don't have a monopoly on courage.
It isn't hard to fathom:
Don't use deadly force, pay huge ransoms = scourge of piracy.
The only pirates who return are bodies washed ashore = let's go back to fishing.
Here's to a speedy reunion of that merchant captain and his crew - who showed that warships don't have a monopoly on courage.
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