We left our mothers
To sail on the African sea...
Posted on 03/09/2010 8:51:42 AM PST by george76
Edited on 03/09/2010 8:52:49 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Danish special forces disrupted the takeover by pirates of a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, in a maneuver rarely undertaken by NATO warships...
The crew of the Ariella had seen a skiff approaching their position in the Gulf of Aden early Friday with six or seven armed men firing at them, said Cmdr. Dan B. Termansen, the commander of the Danish warship Absalon. The crew ran to the bridge, where the captain sent out a distress call and put the ship on full steam ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.sfgate.com ...
Just me thinking.
My defence would be to drop a hose into the diesel tank, and spray the pirates with a couple hundred gallons of fuel; then toss a couple of flares in their direction.
But, that’s me ... I’m not much for passively hiding in a reinforced room for a resuce that may or may not come.
Am I the only guy who wonders why we don’t hear of our Navy stepping in to put an end to this piracy? Do we even have a Navy anymore?
Frankly, it’s embarrassing to think we haven’t put this problem to rest by now.
Neither Bush or Obumbler seemed to take this situation serious. Frankly, that concerns me.
It appears we are withdrawing from certain tasks we would have confronted in the old days.
The pirates are black/Somali/muslims and are a protected class. The Danes so far have been the toughest.
Well if that’s it, that in and of itself is troubling.
Our government seems incapable of acknowledging we have a problem with certain groups of people.
What we have here almost verges on a suicide pact.
It is “it.” This happened with Black Hawk Down. The US Army brass asked REPEATEDLY for M1 and Bradleys in Somalia as back up during Clinton when Les Aspin was Def secretary.
The Congressional Black Caucus vetoed the idea “no tanks will be used against Africans.” Our guys had no back up and were running out of ammo. The next day a Malaysian old tank came to rescue them. They were there do to UN duties. May have been Malaysian or another country in that region. I think it was an old Russian T-72.
Re #5 -
Well, since we have a semi-Black, closet Muslim Kenyan Emperor do you really expect that he’s going to allow our Navy to behave rudely to his “Bretheren”?
Surely you jest...
Unfortunately, many of the ports that these ships visit have laws regarding allowing an armed ship from entering the harbor. An armed ship may be construed as a military ship, and therefore makes the commercial harbor a military target.
That is the only reason, IMHO, that the ships have been unarmed for so long - they haven’t had the right to self-defense.
Diesel doesn’t burn well.
I think the truth was that the ship had a “Gun-Free Zone Ship” sign posted. Frustrated that they couldn’t take the ship unarmed, the pirates left.
Good idea, I woud rather hide some vulcan miniguns in some dummy cargo containers and when the pirates approach the ship the sides of the container folds down and the miniguns open up hosing them down with hot lead. Kind of like the scene in waterworld when they used a quad 50.
Heavy Diesel doesn't, but light Diesel is not much different than kerosene/jet fuel. In fact the army uses JP-8 in everything, including diesel trucks, diesel HUMMVs, Bradleys, self propelled artillery. Aircraft crashes show it burns well enough, especialy when an aerosel.
That said, many ships don't use diesel, they use a much heavier fuel, those that do use diesel may use a heavier version, probably similar to that used for train engines, that indeed does not burn as well.
Still, it does burn.
You will see a dark spot on the surface of the sun where the diesel stubbornly refuses to burn.
It will remain a dark spot forever.
I'd much prefer to see that the pirates were "keel-hauled" rather than merely "thwarted"...
I should think one U.S. submarine could take care of all the “mother ships” the Somali pirates could possibly send out. (But torpedoes are costly, so maybe they could call in a destroyer for some deck gun practice.)
Without mother ships, those skiffs are a coastal threat only.
Problem solved.
come to think of it. it might be easier for them to replace their old mother-ship rather then refill the fuel on the old one.
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