QFT. Honestly, that place has been a hole for decades. Pretty amazing when you look bad even compared to other African nations.
African pirates copy ideas for ransom riches - CNN.com I know this is gonna be unpopular, but if you scroll down in that article, you can see that they know where some of these guys live. Why don't we just hit them at home? One operation off of an aircraft carrier and we could wipe the floor with dozens of them...
Here's what we need: Q-ship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A few of those out there might be a deterrence.
Never heard of those, despite their poor overall kill ratio that's pretty cool and straight up ballsy.
It's pretty clear that the current "solution" of scattering a few frigates/destroyers around the whole region is almost useless. They need to change tactics somehow to actually make a difference, whether it's Q-ships or more plausibly a return to a convoy system.
U.S. Sea Marshalls. Id love to see 6 guys come on a boat with handguns only to be instantly surrounded by 8 guys in full swat gear pointing blinding lasers in their eyes from their m14's.
Better yet, pay the ransom with tagged money so we can track it to it's destination. It's the folks sitting comfortably at the top of this piracy pyramid that we really want. The crew took control of the ship, but the captain is being held hostage.
I have a feeling they would know better then to take that money straight to them. Alot of money scams come out of africa, They know how to keep it out of sight if they wanted to. Though you are 100% correct, Its an organized criminal enterprise, thats the only way to really take them down. Nevertheless. I still want to see a story about 6 bodys that washed up on a beach because a U.S. Sea marshall blasted them off the ship before they had a chance to negotiate with them. (Negotiate as in please dont shoot we were not going to actually hijack your ship..)
Let's deploy a large fleet and sink every Somali craft over a certain size, and destroy all of their ports. Sounds extreme, but their civil situation has been negatively affecting shipping lanes and their neighbors for years. I think the US navy could settle this in 3-4 days of strikes. Reduce them to small sail boats and smoldering coastline... :evil:
You want to solve this problem? Help build a stable government in the country. The reason this is happening is the lack of a real government and the lack of a real economy. There is no one to enforce laws, and no legit ways to make a living. But yah, killing them is the simple "solution".
This is NOT a slam on President Obama but I don't feel it will be handled any different than it was under President Clinton. I hope you all remember that little fiasco. The ideologies are too similar. Kinda like Fiddy just pointed out. Let's go in there as ...........I guess peacekeepers and somehow rebuild the government but without bloodshed. Not trying to put words in your mouth at all, I'm just guessing you kind of mean that. The warlords will just back off if you go in with a smile on your face I guess? I may have said this before but, my only "True" bigotry is against Somalians in general. I actually despise them and have zero use for them on this planet.
Good luck with that. Kind of hard to replace hundreds of years of warlord rule/mentality with a civil government.
I didn't realize the U.S. Coast Guard had ships in The Indian Ocean. Let's leave Law Enforcement to you all and military operations to real operators. Kay?........mkay.
You never fail to swoop in and align all of our moral compasses. What would we ever do without you? My comment was meant to be tongue in cheek actually. But I do find it funny how after bitching about Iraq for 6 years you'd propose nation building. None of our business, we've got no business being there, remember all that?
I'm just saying killing people hasn't worked before and it won't work now. Unless you are proposing genocide, which would work until they are replaced by another group who will do the same thing. Stable countries with functioning economies don't have these kinds of problems, do they? No, they don't. As for your comment about Iraq and "nation building". It's stupid. For one, there is a difference between nation building and the Iraq War. That was a lie of a war that involved destroying and occupying a nation. Two, I'm not proposing another Iraq War on Somalia. Third, in a global world everyone is involved in everyone's business, it is the way countries interact that matters.
Yes, yes. I'm stupid and you have all the answers. Thanks again for straightening this thread out. Tongue-in-cheek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You know what. I apologize for that comment. It was uncalled for. Thanks for your service Hans. I guess what I really meant was that USCG isn't combat oriented. Law enforcement and saving civies is their main purpose.
I didn't say you were stupid, I said your comment was. These days as lot of your contributions to any political discussions center around going after me and whatever I say in the thread, or some simplistic "tongue in cheek" attack on those nasty liberals or any idea you deem 'liberal', instead of actually contributing to an intelligent discussion.
No offense but I find nothing "Intelligent" about sending any of our troops into that shithole unless this current administration is willing to back them up logistically and strategically. You want to make yet another go at helping that country out? Do it properly this time and I'm all for it. Just don't tie the hands of our military when the shit hits the fan.
Which is another way of saying I'm stupid and wrong. And right you are. But all joking aside, re-read the posts above and ponder who went after who. I just treat your self righteous irritability with the posture it deserves. Personally I keep hoping you're going to lighten up and stop being such a wet diaper. I'm sure a lot of people around here wonder if the old 950 will ever come back.
Who went after who... Hmm... Lets see. I made a post, not even directly responding to your reply, where I said the reason there are pirates in that country is because there is no real government and no economy. The obvious result is warlords and criminal activity. That fact is not debatable. Then you quote me, and insult me. Am I missing something here? And "the old 950"? What was that exactly? I've almost always tried to contribute intelligent discussion to the boards here. Am I wrecking your fun by pointing out proven facts like college grads overall have higher incomes than non-college grads (to give one example)? Does it hurt your feelings when I say torture is wrong? I mention that and you get all upset and start whining about it. I guess I just don't understand what is so awful about having a real discussion, you on the other hand don't seem interested in that at all much of the time.
