From: stormreaver
Written: 2009-04-18 18:01:46.893288
Subject: Somali Pirates
Written: 2009-04-18 18:01:46.893288
Subject: Somali Pirates
I don't understand why we allow the Somali pirates to have free reign over the world's ships and crews. This is a simple problem with a simple solution.
We don't need our militaries to patrol the areas under pirate attack, as it is a waste of a scarce government asset that is unlikely to be able to find the pirates, given the extensive territory under consideration. We don't need to arm sailors who are not qualified, able, or willing to wield automatic weapons, as the risk of accidental shootings is unacceptably high.
What the shipping companies need is to hire a few well trained, ex-military personnel for each vessel's security. Such military personnel would be fully capable of handling the weaponry needed to defend the vessel, are highly cost efficient, and scale well with vessel size and complexity.
The bottom line is that pirates attacking shipping vessels need to be killed.
Period.
If the odds of being killed rise to the level of near certainty, the pirates will cease attacking. They are essentially cowards, and will not engage an armed vessel defended by a crew fully capable of wiping them out with relative ease.
Obviously, the pirates will acquire larger weapons to counter the threat of armed merchant ships, but there is a limit to the kind of weaponry they can carry on their small boats. Merchant vessels are much larger, can carry much larger crews, and can carry much larger weapons. The pirates will lose through simple physics and economics.
It's time so stop coddling these international criminals, and time to just wipe them out.
We don't need our militaries to patrol the areas under pirate attack, as it is a waste of a scarce government asset that is unlikely to be able to find the pirates, given the extensive territory under consideration. We don't need to arm sailors who are not qualified, able, or willing to wield automatic weapons, as the risk of accidental shootings is unacceptably high.
What the shipping companies need is to hire a few well trained, ex-military personnel for each vessel's security. Such military personnel would be fully capable of handling the weaponry needed to defend the vessel, are highly cost efficient, and scale well with vessel size and complexity.
The bottom line is that pirates attacking shipping vessels need to be killed.
Period.
If the odds of being killed rise to the level of near certainty, the pirates will cease attacking. They are essentially cowards, and will not engage an armed vessel defended by a crew fully capable of wiping them out with relative ease.
Obviously, the pirates will acquire larger weapons to counter the threat of armed merchant ships, but there is a limit to the kind of weaponry they can carry on their small boats. Merchant vessels are much larger, can carry much larger crews, and can carry much larger weapons. The pirates will lose through simple physics and economics.
It's time so stop coddling these international criminals, and time to just wipe them out.