Posted on 05/21/2011 11:40:20 AM PDT by Mount Athos
China's military is urging land attacks on Somali pirate strongholds in a bold call signalling the armed forces' growing assertiveness.
China's navy has taken part in anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since December 2008, but the government has not advocated direct attacks on land areas from which pirates operate.
However, at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, General Chen Bingde said he believes land bases must be attacked in order for counter-piracy campaigns to be effective.
The US and other countries taking part in the patrols have steered clear of land attacks for fear of becoming mired in ongoing campaigns in Somalia - a lawless nation where 18 US servicemen were killed in the capital, Mogadishu, in 1993.
When was the last time the US opened fire on a Somali Muzzie pirate boat?
(crickets chirping)
That’s right because US won’t unless the Muzzies directly attack a US warship. Otherwise it is just catch, take away their toys of war, feed them, give them fuel for their boat, and send them on their way.
The Feds are too much in love with the Muzzies to go on any offensive to stop these Squatomalian sea jihadis.
My solution?
1. Find out where all of the hostages are being kept,
2. Send in the Navy SEALs and Green Berets to rescue them the hostages and boats,
3. Declare a 12 mile off shore zone the Somalis can’t cross in their boats and if they do it is an automatic death sentence for them,
4. Get three battleships to run, eight hour shifts 24 hours a day, a bombardment campaign that blasts every square inch of coastline several miles wide, and then
5. Send in B-52 bombers, C-130 Spectre gunships, and other aircraft assets that can drop bombs and just bomb them 24/7 until every building in that country is flattened.
From then on have the military patrol the 12 mile exclusion zone and be merciless for any boats that cross the line and keep an eye on their coast line with UAVs.
China has it right! Take em out now!
China. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly all rolled into one here.
Re: In light of the fact that Somali piracy is actually seafaring jihad, getting the PLA to stick its fingers in that hornet’s nest might actually be good policy for the West...
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I think you are missing the whole point there: What’s happening, I suspect, is that it’s a bold statement with respect to what they see as the wanton violation and rape of Libya. The message, essentially, is as follow:
“Where there are coalition of the willing to deal with extremists (or terrorists) in Libya; then fair is fair, [there should also be a coalition of the willing to deal with the sea faring terrorists of Somalia] in the very exact same level of impunity.”
Chinese are very funny animals. They never say it directly, as is, they beat around the bushes and they use ambiguous wordings as a means of delivering a message to their intended audience.
Right now they are using some kind of noise that warns them off. I am told that all they have to do is start the sirens and point the guns and the Somalis turn tail and make for land.
Just drop a nuke on the place.
Just wait until they control access to ships in the Horn of Africa.....Game Over.
I’m beginning to think that the answer to this kind of stuff is ground warfare, but without occupation. Go in, clean up the current group of pirates, then leave. When the next group comes along, come back. Eventually there’ll be a cultural belief about that foolishness of provoking the Chinese, and the activity will stop for a few decades.
One time when I can get behind a Chinese policy....
Because China wants additional justification to colonize the African Continent. An internationally approved land war against pirates allows them to base forces there without anybody batting an eye.
It would be good, and makes sense since today I read that one Chinese General said “his military is no match for U.S.” Say one thing, show another.
It's worth remembering that the reason we have this piracy problem in the first place is because foreign fishing fleets moved in and over fished the waters off Somalia after the central government collapsed. And who was the main culprit? The Chinese.
UAV coverage can tell them where pirate boats come from. When a ship is attacked, the pirates are killed, as is anybody within 10 miles from where they came from.
That is the first sensible thing I have seen from anthing like an official or semiofficial source.
The USofA did that very thing a couple of centuries ago and ended the Barbary pirate problem.
The Chinese had to scramble to pull 30,000 of their workers out of the oil fields when Libya erupted. I suspect they are perfectly happy to let us carry the burden in Libya. Perhaps they feel OK with carrying some of the burden off Somalia as some of their ships are endangered. The sooner the Libya scene is clear, the sooner they can get back to the oil. Might not want to pixx us off by getting too territorial in Somalia as they probably want to get back to the oil fields ASAP. Who knows, there might even be a secret agreement between us and them.
I know a blog that has Google Earth images of everyone of all the Somali pirate havens .... with such information, there would be no need for land forces....simply a number of small tactical nukes...one for each pirate haven. =.=
They’re never gonna leave anyway. Ten years ago (more) they already had troops in Sudan, to guard the oil rigs Chinese crews were working on.
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