America, F--- Yeah!Follow

I don't doubt that this is the story they tell (I've heard the same) but I'm skeptical of people who think that the best way to protect their fishing stocks and shorelines is to hijack non-affiliated tankers and cargo ships, hold them for millions of dollars and then spending that money on booze, cars, women and houses.

Maybe the "coast guard" story lets them sleep at night. More likely, they sleep just fine and they figure that the "coast guard" story sounds good in the media.

Hmmm, this whole thing sort of makes me want to reread Bio of a Space Tyrant. It wasn't Piers Anthnony's best work, but it is rather relevant. The entire 5 book saga is about a Hispanic migrant worker (yes, in space) who vows to eradicate piracy from Jupiter since they killed his family. He joins the US/Jupiter Space Navy, ends up getting promoted to Admiral, and gets assigned the task of doing just that. Some of the pirates . . . he just shuts down their drug rings and **** rings. He ends up marrying a pirate's daughter (the gambling cartel) and bringing them to the more legit side of operations. And, well, everyone else, he ends up blowing their **** up in some epic space wars.

Eventually, though, he realizes that it's not something that can be fixed solely by a military operation, so he goes and runs for office to finish it off from a political operation.

That's what has to happen from Somalia. Sniping away the pirates one by one is not a solution. Addressing the underlying political situation that caused piracy to swell is the only way to eradicate it completely. Unfortunately, since someone dumped nuclear waste in the ocean there and overfishing destroyed their livelihood, it's going to take a long time to fix up the *********** around the Horn of Africa.

Hardly irelevant. Nothing happens in isolation, however much you refuse to see it.

You can increase the risks for the individual until you shoot every pirate dead on sight.

But theres 6.5 million people in Somalia. You going to shoot them all?

Meaningless statements such as 'If the costs rise, they'll stop doing it' are meaningless. I seem to remeber you saying something similar about the Palestinians in Gaza.

Like I said above, to look at the incidence of piratical activity in the Gulf of Aden as tho' it has sprung from nowhere in the last year, and plan your actions on that basis might make good media entertainment but will do nothing to stop destitute/criminal Somalis taking to the sea in pursuit of profit.

You're right! Their coast guard service is woefully inadequate and they have no right to call themselves that. It could lead to all sorts of confusion amongst law-abiding seafarers.

On the other hand, you should see their beach lifeguards. They're pretty damn hot!

Crap! Did you win the thread again?

I'm crushed! Crushed I say!!

Just in case theres enough room for me to get one more post in b4 drowning in /Jophlols......

I wasn't arguing anything as it happens.

I was merely pointing out in my own inimicable way some inconsistancies in the 'If we keep killing pirates, then they are sure to eventually stop pirating and return to a peaceful life of fishing and animal husbandry on the tropical coastline of Somalia' train of thought. Wich, come to think of it is similar to the one that goes 'If we send loads more troops to Afghanistan and bomb even more of them back to the stone-age, then eventually they will see the error of their ways and get back to making world class carpets'.


I was trying to expose the readers and contributors of this fine thread to an alternative way of seeing the world and its problems.
Looking at events like the piracy in the Horn of Africa as something that has happened in isolation to anything else, without history, as it were, and to treat it as such is sure to lead to half-***** ideas on how to fix it. That seems to be the reccurring pattern anyway.


'One mans Pirate is another mans Coastguard' after all.






Edited, Apr 15th 2009 8:16am by paulsol

The political conditions are relevant except that, right now, there isn't much of anything we can do about them. Pumping aid into the nation doesn't work because the local leaders hoard the stuff for themselves. The "federal" government is powerless. Unless we're going to play nation-builder, there's not a whole lot, except in the longest of terms, we can do about the reality in Somalia. If you have ideas on this front, mail them to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC.

What we can do is shift pirating from a no-risk/easy-money proposition to one which has a much greater chance of getting its participants arrested or killed. Thus making it less attractive and resulting in less pirates. Right now, the job of pirating involves getting your buddies on a boat, hijacking a large ship and sitting on it until you get your $2mil ransom. I'm not overly worries about "recruiting more pirates" because anyone who hasn't already filled out an application at Pirate HQ to get in on the free $2mil racket isn't likely to say "Wait, now I'll also likely get shot or sent to a pit in Kenya? All right!"

No, it's not a long term solution but it's the best short term solution in the absence of any others.

The shipping industry is bigger, smarter, and wealthier than the pirates. I think they will come up with add-ons for the ships to make it harder for pirates to get on board and/or allow it to withstand or intercept grenades.