Posted on 04/11/2008 12:28:17 PM PDT by Eurotwit
“Keyboard warriors” are by definition incapable or disinclined to take action of any kind to put themselves in harm’s way..
However — many of those who have found sufficient deficiencies with the French and French military to ridicule them the past several years before the current leader came on the scene, were fully justified with portfolios as veteran warriors.
Most have face ARMED adversaries a lot more formidable than a collection of Somali “fisherman” as they have been described who added piracy to their vocation....
So I hope you won’t be offended if some of us wait for more information before we applaud the French or stop ridiculing them... On the surface - this DOES look like a positive action by the French...
The history of piracy in the waters off Somalia - should justify the sinking of ANY vessel who penetrates any ship’s security perimeter after being “warned” off by horn, signal or shots...
Will be interested in seeing photos of how badly these pirates damaged this fine ship.
“A district commissioner in Somalia told Reuters that five local people had died in the attack”
So what? Too bad they didn’t nail all the pirates.
The “pirates” should all be shot.
Must have fallen off the boat!
“Well then. Who in the hell was on that yacht that it required parachuting an Admiral no less into the sea so he could oversee the rescue operation ?”
You must have missed it in the article, they freed the Head Pastry Chef. My God one must have their priorities. /s
As I said, good for the French! As well it should be done. But, to quote one of the previous posts, I think the ‘pulverization’ would have been preferable. Or the age old tradition of mast hanging (tho plank would have done just as well).
Ya know THAT is a helluva idea. And I bet it’d be lots of fun too.
Yes, all the Europeans (except maybe the Dutch) can still be brutally ruthless when they get really pi$$ed off. When that day comes, we may see concentration camps there again.
Who wouldn’t sign up to cruise the East Indian ocean for a couple of weeks on a really posh yacht, do some serious gamefishing, and have the chance to expend a couple thousand rounds tearing up a bunch of asshats no one will miss anyway? It’s all in international waters anyway, so unless someone’s navy gets their knickers in a twist, I’d be home-free.
Heck, I could probably sell tickets. I’d be rich.
Every ship making that passage should take on a security crew with rocket launchers and rotate them onto the nearest entering ship soon as they clear dangerous waters. The maritime insurers can do the tally- loss of ship and cargo plus ransom = how many security crews?
All any of this terrorist/piracy cr*p requires is a measure of decisiveness.
Sign me up. I’d be founder and a first customer to boot. That could do with some pretty serious market research. Tho the income and expenses would be easy to figure out... lesseee...
Superyacht - 30M, modified
BOFORS, 40mm, - 10M each, say, two.
Crew, ex-SOCOM, Blackwater or Executive outcomes, 10 guys, 2.5M/yr
Crew, chef, butler, serving staff, 0.5M/yr
Fuel/Ammo/Beer - 0.25M /yr
Finance the whole thing at, say, 8%, first year of operations. 50M capital investment, 8%, 4M interest, crew, expenses and insurance, ~10M annual operating expenses.
Pricelist - 1 week adventure cruise in pirate infested waters, all-inclusive, for one person, 100k. Say 10 passengers, 1.0M/week. 26 weeks a year. Cool 26M annual revenue. That’s about 61% profit margin.
Well done Mr French men.
I'd would have preferred that the yacht came in to harbor with the pirates swinging from the yardarms. GREAT photo op!
I think the bigger problem has been with the French political system and all that that entails. From what I have heard over the years the special units of the French military are quite competent. As far as large scale military capability, maybe not so much, but this was not that.
I’d only change one thing. Rather than one $30-million yacht, I’d do 10 3-million yachts. Each with a BOFORS on the foredeck (suitably camouflaged, of course), and a couple of M-60s with rail mounts for cleanup. I’d rotate them through the area a few at a time, so the pirates wouldn’t be able to figure out who was thinning their numbers.
Figure 2-3 at sea at any given time, so that boosts the fuel costs and the number of crew needed (though not by the full amount, since the smaller yachts won’t need the big crew that the big one does), but increases the number of passengers as well. It also increases the number of pirates that can be dealt with during each sailing. Plus, the costs might even be lower, since it’s likely that I could probably round up a sponsor or two due to the interest that so many have in making that area safe again.
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