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2008-08-22 Africa Horn

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Posted by tu3031 2008-08-22 09:56|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1 Calling Blackwater. Time to pitch the gig to the insurance and maritime companies. If the 'sovereign' governments of the world won't deal with the problem because of self imposed restraints, that opens the door for letters of mark and reprisal from other sources. Just remind the employer that there are severe penalties for early withdraw.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-08-22 10:52|| 2008-08-22 10:52|| Front Page Top

#2 He said only the United Nations could help stop the menace because Somalia has no central government.

You have to be freeking kidding me - the UN can't even solve the combination to the men's toliet.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2008-08-22 10:54|| 2008-08-22 10:54|| Front Page Top

#3 Just flatten the port and all the homes around it..
Make being a pirate something your neighbors hate so much that they will just kill you on sight.
done.

Posted by 3dc 2008-08-22 11:03|| 2008-08-22 11:03|| Front Page Top

#4 Nothing a few Arc-light strikes wouldn't fix.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-08-22 11:17|| 2008-08-22 11:17|| Front Page Top

#5 Sounds like a well camoflaged "Q" Ship is needed Here. (loaed to the gunwales with Marines, ROE? "Kill them all.".

Posted by Redneck Jim">Redneck Jim 2008-08-22 11:30|| 2008-08-22 11:30|| Front Page Top

#6 Nothing an effective navy couldn't fix.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-08-22 11:34|| 2008-08-22 11:34|| Front Page Top

#7 A couple of helicopter gunships sinking every ship in a couple of harbors might get the point across.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-08-22 11:35|| 2008-08-22 11:35|| Front Page Top

#8 Darth is correct. So is 3dc. An ARCLIGHT strike through one village that harbored pirates would do the trick. Because the "G" and "H" models of the B-52 don't have the iron-bomb capacity of the old "D" models, use four- instead of three-aircraft flights. You might kill a few crewmembers from whatever captured ship is in port, but you'd certainly send a strong message that piracy not only doesn't pay, but that a pirate ship in your port will bring retaliation. From what I've read, most of the pirates are from the Puntland autonomous province of Somalia. Maybe an ARCLIGHT strike down through the center of the capital of Puntland would also be useful. Talk about "shock and awe", how about "shock and fear"? It's long past time we do something like this. The arab world needs to learn to respect the West. Nothing garners respect like an ARCLIGHT strike.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-08-22 12:30|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-08-22 12:30|| Front Page Top

#9 Meanwhile these LADS, at one time the finest on the coninent, sit with their thumbs up their bums in Simon's Town.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-08-22 14:07|| 2008-08-22 14:07|| Front Page Top

#10 From Strategypage...

August 11, 2008: On August 8th, a U.S. Navy amphibious ship, the USS Peleliu, while cruising off the north coast of Somalia, got a distress call from a merchant ship ten kilometers away. The merchantman was under attack by pirates in speed boats. The Peleliu promptly dispatched three armed helicopters, which caused the pirates to flee. The merchant ship suffered some damage from bullets, plus an RPG rocket that landed in the superstructure, but did not explode.

This year, Somali pirates have shifted their operations to the far north, on the Gulf of Aden (which separates Somalia from Yemen, in southern Arabia). Over 80 percent of the pirate attacks are now taking place in the Gulf of Aden, where heavy Red Sea traffic provides a larger number of potential victims.

While other pirate plagued nations have navies and coast guards that can battle the piracy problem, Somalia is without any central government, or seagoing military forces. So the international community has been sending more and more warships to patrol the coast.

For the last three years, an international naval patrol, CTF 150 (Combined Task Force 150, operating out of Djibouti) has patrolled the entire 3,000 kilometer long coast. But with only about fifteen ships (from half a dozen nations), the CTF 150 has been able to slow down the pirates, but not stop them. The USS Peleliu is not part of the patrol, but was just passing through the area. Fortunately, the 39,000 ship normally carries about 30 helicopters, six Harrier jets, and a battalion of marines, so it had the means to deal with pirates.

Moreover, unless this coastal patrol force was willing to send troops ashore to kill or arrest the pirates in the land bases, the pirates will keep playing hide-and-seek with the naval patrols, and continue to attack ships and get away with it.

Posted by tu3031 2008-08-22 15:02|| 2008-08-22 15:02|| Front Page Top

#11 I guess if it were US flagged ships it might be our problem, but the instinctive reaction to defend Panamanian and Greek shipping just isn't there for some reason.

Posted by .5MT 2008-08-22 15:22|| www.cybernations.net]">[www.cybernations.net] 2008-08-22 15:22|| Front Page Top

#12 #9: Meanwhile these LADS, at one time the finest on the coninent, sit with their thumbs up their bums in Simon's Town.

Besoeker,

I thought they had been relegated to feeding the penguins of False Bay?

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2008-08-22 15:24|| 2008-08-22 15:24|| Front Page Top

#13 Whahahhaha...yep, the Jackass bunch.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-08-22 18:50|| 2008-08-22 18:50|| Front Page Top

23:55 JosephMendiola
23:50 JosephMendiola
23:44 Lampedusa Glack5566
23:36 newc
23:21 3dc
23:19 3dc
23:10 Anonymoose
23:07 Procopius2k
22:58 badanov
22:57 DarthVader
22:53 Mike Kozlowski
22:24 Frank G
22:13 CrazyFool
22:09 DMFD
22:08 Frank G
22:02 Mike Kozlowski
21:59 Mike Kozlowski
21:48 Frank G
21:45 Abu Uluque
21:42 CrazyFool
21:23 OldSpook
21:17 mrp
21:17 DarthVader
21:15 Eric Jablow