Article

2011-04-24 Africa Horn

Military response alone cannot arrest piracy off Somalia coast

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Posted by Fred 2011-04-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top
File under: Pirates

#1 Military response would work, if it involved pirate boat sinkings and summary pirate hangings, rather than arrests and trials and imprisonment (assuming one can find a jurisdiction willing to take that responsibility.)

Posted by Glenmore 2011-04-24 00:18|| 2011-04-24 00:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Mucking about on the high seas is treating the symptoms, not the base of the disease. Take a base, destroy the houses of the new rich for starters. Then destroy their boat fleet anchored near the shore, and work up to total destruction of the town, stopping only when they stop the piracy

Hobyo or Eyl are good places to start.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-04-24 01:05|| 2011-04-24 01:05|| Front Page Top

#3 Militarist mindset

Contrary to claims, the counter-piracy strategy is dominated by a militarist mindset, impervious to evidence that military response is failing to effectively deal with a problem that is complex and inextricably tied to the prolonged crisis in Somalia.

Military might has demonstrably failed to deter piracy.

An academic mindset that is devoid of any knowledge of real human history. How did Caesar deal with pirates? How did Thomas Jefferson deal with pirates? It's an old disease that does respond to old 'cures'.

As to military deterrence - there is none when their hands are tied.

This is the same bovine drivel by people who can't connect the overall drop in crime with the largest incarceration population in the country's history. Just maybe crime is down because the perps have been removed from society.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-04-24 08:33|| 2011-04-24 08:33|| Front Page Top

#4 Head slap photo with "Not this shit again" needed. Life is becoming more like Ground Hog Day every day.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-04-24 08:36|| 2011-04-24 08:36|| Front Page Top

#5 I absolutely agree with Glenmore. If we treated pirates like they treated pirates in the good old days, especially with the weapon systems we have today, there would be no piracy problem. A few skeletons hanging in the pirates' ports, a few smoking craters where the pirates' bases used to be, and the problem would dry up fairly quickly.

Posted by Rambler in Virgnia 2011-04-24 11:29|| 2011-04-24 11:29|| Front Page Top

#6 Military might has demonstrably failed to deter piracy. Extensive and robust patrols, and aggressive pursuits of suspect vessels, have inadvertently displaced the problem.

That's not military, that's a kind of (PC) police work.

Posted by Willy 2011-04-24 12:35|| 2011-04-24 12:35|| Front Page Top

#7 ARCLIGHT a couple of their villages into dust, tell them that if we have to come back we'll use both high explosives and napalm, then follow through. The only thing these people understand is force. Show them enough force, and they'll stop their behavior. As long as the West plays timid, and the pirates make huge profits, it will continue. HURT THEM. Hurt them so badly they won't want a second dose. It's the only thing that will stop this.

Posted by Old Patriot 2011-04-24 13:34|| 2011-04-24 13:34|| Front Page Top

#8 That's not military, that's a kind of (PC) police work.

It's not even police work.

Posted by Pappy 2011-04-24 21:47|| 2011-04-24 21:47|| Front Page Top

#9 The root cause of piracy is ransoms.

Stop paying the ransoms and you will stop the piracy.

Nothing that is done on land will make a whit of difference. Sinking boats will certainly help suppress it, but never stop it as long as the ransoms are paid.

Posted by phil_b 2011-04-24 21:56|| 2011-04-24 21:56|| Front Page Top

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