Posted on 04/10/2009 2:23:38 AM PDT by Scanian
THE seizure of the Maersk Alabama and her American crew of 21 by pirates on Tuesday may finally be the wake-up call we need to deal with the ongoing piracy threat in the waters off Somalia.
To their everlasting credit, the Americans on board saved the Obama administration from its version of Jimmy Carter's Iran hostage crisis by turning the tables on their captors and taking back their ship. Can we hope that the US government will finally be as decisive -- and truly act against this growing threat to world trade?
The pirates prey at the Horn of Africa, by the convergence of two crucial highways of international sea-going traffic, the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope. In this world recession, keeping those sea lanes open is more imperative than ever.
But only the US government can do the job: No one else has the force and will to apply the lessons in dealing with pirates taught by those past masters of enforcing law and order on the high seas, the British Navy.
Beginning in the mid-17th century, the Royal Navy cleared the world's oceans of pirates from the Caribbean to the Philippines, virtually single-handed. (The famed US attacks on "the shores of Tripoli" didn't stop the piracy; it took the Royal Navy to smash Algiers and finish the job.)
Before we can see any serious change in today's piracy situation, our diplomats and politicians need to assimilate the lessons the British learned then.
Don't leave it to the lawyers: There has been far too much talk about whether the Law of the Sea Treaty or the Geneva Convention can apply to pirates, or whether we need to call an international conference to study the problem, or how we can bring "the world community together."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“Lose the Lawyers” should be step one in just about ANY plan...
Lose the lawyers and the politicians.
Have the US government trace/track the beneficiaries of piracy - it goes way beyond Somalis. Then publicly declare their names and offer the following bounty:
Tax free status and US citizenship to anyone who confiscates their wealth by any means. Make profiting from pirating a misereable, unpeaceful business.
Unless the profiteers surrender to US justice and forfeit their gains.
What BS, but not surprising, considering the source. It would take a week to wipe out the Somali pirates. The Special Forces already have plans to accomplish the mission, they're just waiting for the GO from President Obama.
Now, here's what we need to do now. Send the SEALS to swim over to the lifeboat, the pirates have the Captain in during the night. Slit their throats and remove the captain and tow the lifeboat to pirates port for them to find (with the Ace of Spades on their chests
time to reform executive outcomes, and have them buld a Q-ship. I would imagine Lloys of London would see this as a good business decision.
Q-ships are a cool idea, but they weren’t very effective.
I like privateers. You could send them after Iranian, N Korean, and Somali shipping. Deny any involvement at all. Pirates, you know.
You could even create an incentive for taking on their bases. They have to keep their wealth somewhere, no? So some enterprising hackers should be encouraged to drain it - tax free and without penalty if the money is repatriated to the US.
One false theme about this is that Somalia is a stateless state. That is not true. There is government in most of Somalia.
There are people in control guiding this piracy and they’re not Somalis.
Somalia is poor not because of the desert, but because of socialism/totalitarianism in its many forms.
The Marine Corps was formed to fight the Barbary(Muslim) Pirates and we’re still fighting Muslim pirates/terrorists today...
Sooner or later, we are gonna have to give the muzzies the jihad they so desperately want.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
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