Posted on 11/20/2008 4:22:21 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
ARLINGTON, Va. — To hell with pirates: The Defense Department isn’t going to re-route ships to avoid the Gulf of Aden.
"We’re not going around the Cape of Good Hope," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.
Several shipping companies this week announced they would do just that, in an effort to avoid pirates lurking in the waters off Somalia. But the U.S. government is not considering such an option for its ships.
"Ultimately that’s not the solution to this," Morrell said. "And that, to me — in scenarios like that, the pirates win. And they should not be allowed to win."
Twice this year, security teams aboard Military Sealift Command ships have fired warning shots at perceived attackers.
This year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, eight in the last week. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that pirates off Somalia had taken in an estimated $25 million to $30 million in ransom in 2008. Recently, pirates seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks.
Morrell dismissed a reporter’s question about why the U.S. Navy was not doing more to confront pirates, noting that the British recently killed several pirates and the Indians sank a pirate dhow.
"And I also take issue with this whole notion that it’s incumbent upon the armed forces of the world, the navies of the world, to solve this problem," he said.
"We have an obligation to protect international shipping lines, but the companies ... also have an obligation to secure their ships to prevent incidents such that we’ve been seeing at alarming rates over the past several months."
You make sure your ships are WELL ARMED and you SHOOT FIRST and ask questions later!
Any aggressive action should be met with sufficient fire power to sink the pirate vessels with all hands lost at sea.
Sounds to me like all it would take would be a few patrol drones with hellfires.
Interesting take, one I tend to agree with. Who owns most of the ships that transport Saudi oil? US ships? Greek ships? Whoever it is needs to obtain protection. If US ships are highjacked, then I expect the US will exact it's revenge several times over.
Looks like the Navy and the whole DOD has gone wussy!
Unlike private ships, I’m guessing DOD ships are rather well-armed, at least compared to pirates in speed boats.
There are US flag ships? Really? Your’e sure?
Maybe a few, but AFAIK not many.
The whole Somalia problem is going to have to be erradicated permenantly and soon.
I didn’t catch the whole report but I did hear on the news that an Al Qeada backed group is poised to sieze control of the country. As much as I dislike the idea of getting involved in African wars I suspect we’ll need to get involved there only seriously this time.
Doesn’t the country that these pirates call home have some responsibility for this? Something needs to be done with that cesspool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Seeadler_(Windjammer)
Simple solution is to arm these ships with point defense .50 caliber weapons. And trained crew to operate them.
I just caught a whiff of another mercenary market opening....
No, I am not sure and think they belong mostly to other countries. My belief is that the US should not be the world's police. We have an obligation to protect US ships, and that's all.
and Q-boats, lots of Q-boats. Let our SEALS bark! Even the baby ones will get to do some clubbing for a change! :)
Not at all. It is not the Navy's job to spend millions of dollars patroling waters to protect any and all international shipping, especially when the merchantmen could protect themselves very cheaply. The pirates depend on the their victims being completely helpless.
Go here to see what a little backbone can do.
The big tanker that is “detained” is a Liberian flagged ship. But geez, one of the ships that’s been seied is a fishing boat. What do they expect to get out of them?
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