Posted on 11/17/2009 11:09:31 AM PST by Kartographer
Pirates freed 36 crew members from a Spanish trawler Tuesday, and a self-proclaimed pirate said the hostage-takers were paid $3.3 million in ransom. Spain's prime minister did little to deny a payment was made one reason the lucrative attacks are on the rise.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me We pillage, we plunder we rifle and loot Drink up me hearties, yo ho We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot Drink up me hearties, yo ho Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me We extort, we pilfer we filch and sack Drink up me hearties, yo ho Maraud and embezzle and even high-jack Drink up me hearties yo ho Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me We kindle and char inflame and ignite Drink up me hearties, yo ho We burn up the city we're really a fright Drink up me hearties, yo ho We're rascals, scoundrels villains, and knaves Drink up me hearties yo ho We're devils and black sheep - really bad eggs Drink up me hearties yo ho Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads Drink up me hearties, yo ho Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads Drink up me hearties, yo ho
This money will help to fund taking 10x the number of hostages next year. As well as attracting more to the hostage taking field
$3.3million is cheaper than bringing them to NYC (for example) to try them as criminals and then pay for the subsequent trials against those who captured them.
We need to just mine the entire Somali coast and make it a no-mans land. (Or ocean, as it were.)
But think how cheap a bullet to the back of the head and a lenght of chain with a concrete block attached a burial at sea is.
$3 Million would buy lots of napalm. Napalm some surrounding villages, and promise that those villages were just the downpayment if all the sailors aren’t immediately released.
Why ANYONE puts up with piracy in modern times of satelite tracking, drones and the ability to wage war without risking a single soldier - especially against a country like Somalia - it utterly lost on me.
If Somalia is incapable of managing their population; then it is the duty of other nations in the area to protect themselves and help the authorities in Somalia by decimiating those areas where piracy exists.
You don’t win wars with drones just like you don’t win wars with napalm. You win wars by controlling territory and having a strong leadership behind the soldiers on the front lines.
We have neither of that.
We could have sent more than 1,000 drones and it would have just agtagonize the population even more.
The Spainiacs chickens have come home to roost.
We could but people today are panzies. I can’t believe that 90s aftertaste is still here.
Like that Sopranos episode where Tony, Paulie and Sil took
Pussy for a boat ride.
Except the Somalis get no tequila..
Can’t say I agree. I think like the Romans used too think. War is hell; we’ve decided to make war just a negotiating tactic. That’s why we don’t win them anymore. We apply rules to ourselves that our enemies have no agreement to honor themselves. This makes us look both weak, and stupid. Like getting into a potentially lethal fight - and putting a hand behind your back (just to prove some obsure point).
The age-old purpose of war was to utterly destroy the foe, to crush them and if they won’t respect your civilization, they will fear it. In the Roman times, you give a warning; then you decimate 10% of the population, and repeat as necessary. Rome knew how to handle insurgents - when a Battalion of soldiers was attacked by insurgents, the Romans went into the local village and stuck as sword in 10% of the male population. Didn’t take too many visits before the villagers started to decorate the bridges with insurgents - no rewards necessary. This was self-preservation.
We had insurgents in WWI and WWII; they were taken out back and executed on the spot. If you were not wearing a uniform, you were an unlawful combatant and had no protection whatsoever.
If we blew up a substancial number of villages near the pirates bases, the population would ‘learn’ that having the pirates around them, doing business with them, or trading with them was a great way to get your family killed. When the population fears the consequences of dealing with the pirates, more than the pirates themselves - this problem will fix itself.
Piracy is and always has been treated as a capital offense for centuries. Today, we treat it like an annoyance.
As things stand, the Pirates are local heroes. As long as they are local heroes, whether we have a strong leader or not is immaterial.
Doesn’t it give you such a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that these terrorists are being heavily rewarded, financially, for their brazen attacks?
a couple hundred rounds from the 16” guns will send a message that will be remembered for generations.
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