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2009-01-16 Africa Horn

No deterrent to pirates, U.S. commander says

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Posted by gorb 2009-01-16 02:02|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 ...there is no deterrent for pirates to stop attacking ships, Vice Admiral William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.

I can think of at least one deterrent.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-01-16 09:17|| 2009-01-16 09:17|| Front Page Top

#2 The Indians dealt with one. The Russians dealt with one. And

Both are not infested with lawyers. There needs to be a cap on the ratio of lawyers to non-lawyers in any geographical and sovereign territory. If the cap is exceeded then like deer population out of control you issue 'permits' to get it back down under the limit. It won't be a perfect world, but then it's never been perfect but certainly has been more rational without so many of them.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-01-16 09:19|| 2009-01-16 09:19|| Front Page Top

#3 You know, there's a word that hardly ever gets mentioned when talking about Somalia. And its ITALY.
Since Somalia was a colony of Italy, and since it now has no working govt, you'd think Italy would be getting dragged into this mess. But they seem to have no liability there at all. Look at how GB and France, even Belgium get raked over the coals concerning their former colonies, but for some reason, not Italy. Its just curious to me that they seem to be the only exception to the rule.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2009-01-16 09:55|| 2009-01-16 09:55|| Front Page Top

#4 One of the advantages of 'losing' the first half of the last great war, you get to turn your extended colonies over to other colonial powers. It's no longer yours, particularly when the victors tell you to give it up.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-01-16 10:43|| 2009-01-16 10:43|| Front Page Top

#5 killing them is a pretty good deterrent

Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-01-16 11:07|| 2009-01-16 11:07|| Front Page Top

#6 Sink their ships and dump them on the Yemeni coast. Punishment enough, right there.

Posted by mojo 2009-01-16 11:24|| 2009-01-16 11:24|| Front Page Top

#7 The USN is the DOJ's bitch. Fix that problem and piracy disappears.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-01-16 11:29|| 2009-01-16 11:29|| Front Page Top

#8 You do it the Chinese way. If these junk boats just disappear as you approach, nothing more need be said or done. If they keep disappearing fast enough, suddenly the problem just goes away. Everyone is happy.

Posted by Woozle Elmeter 2700 2009-01-16 11:40|| 2009-01-16 11:40|| Front Page Top

#9 No shark-infested waters nearby?

Posted by kirk 2009-01-16 15:23|| 2009-01-16 15:23|| Front Page Top

#10 Seems that piracy would diminish fairly quickly if they started running out of pirates...

hmm that might suggest a strategy

Posted by Abu do you love 2009-01-16 16:02|| 2009-01-16 16:02|| Front Page Top

#11 Pulling into a Somali port with decorated yardarms would make a fair deterrent.

Posted by CrazyFool 2009-01-16 16:49|| 2009-01-16 16:49|| Front Page Top

#12 Okay, okay.

Pappy's point before (and one I agree with) is that it's all well and good to talk about killing pirates, and another thing to make it happen. The folks who've served in the Navy seem to understand this.

It's a mighty big patch of water. You have frigates and helos because no one is putting a carrier on duty for this. There's a LOT of ship traffic, with all sorts of different routes, and the ship owners are not interested in 1) escorts 2) armed guards and 3) convoys. Piracy is an expense to them, not a life or death matter.

And let's be clear, international law is different than 300 years ago. Back then you killed pirates because you didn't want to spend four months with them on your small ship while you dragged them back to Portsmouth. Today communications are instantaneous and one can dump a load of pirates on a controlling authority within a day or two. Said controlling authority has issues to work out: how to hold the pirates. How to try them. What to do with them after you try them.

And no, sorry, we can't do an ARCLIGHT on the Somali shore. And napalm is right out.

Finally, the pirates aren't exactly stupid. They understand the sea, ships, small boats, communications, handling money, and small weapons, and they learn from experience.

So go ahead and boast about how you'd turn them all into chum. The professionals know better.

Posted by Steve White 2009-01-16 17:10|| 2009-01-16 17:10|| Front Page Top

#13 not turn them all to chum...

but a few... come on.. you saying we cant even try to do that?

Posted by Abu do you love 2009-01-16 17:20|| 2009-01-16 17:20|| Front Page Top

#14 "Said controlling authority has issues to work out: how to hold the pirates. How to try them. What to do with them after you try them"

Who's the "controlling authority," Steve?

As for the others, it's probably unrealistic, what with all the liberal whiners about, but I still think the rest of the stuff (holding, trying, etc.) could be taken care of with a long walk on a short plank.

How the hell did the world get to the point where we coddle pirates? They discarded their rights when they attacked another person's ship.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-01-16 17:48|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2009-01-16 17:48|| Front Page Top

#15 To reiterate about the Indians and Russians, it's evolving to a similar pattern of how we handled hot prisoners - returning them to another country to do the dirty work to extract information. Technically we're clean, but the job gets done with little real complaining on methods by our side. Our guys will continue to play defense, but the other players will get more action [and deference] from the pirates.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-01-16 18:37|| 2009-01-16 18:37|| Front Page Top

#16 So, here's a strategy: the US captures a boatload of pirates; we call the nearest Indian or Russian ship; we put the pirates back in their boat, with one or more key engine parts missing; we clear the area. After that we can play Sgt Schulz - "I saw nuttink"

Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia 2009-01-16 19:09|| 2009-01-16 19:09|| Front Page Top

#17 Barbara, the controlling authority is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other international law. Check this if you want to know more or having difficulty sleeping. Bottom line, the lawyers are in charge so expect it to take a long time.

That also makes me suspicious of relying on India and Russia in the longer term. I suspect India especially will be subject to lawfare.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-01-16 19:45|| 2009-01-16 19:45|| Front Page Top

23:59 Glenmore
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