What to do with these pirates?
 

Pirates in the Somalia waters have been known to be a problem for a couple of years now. This latest encounter made me think a bit...

The facts as I understand them...

1. Pirates attacked a US ship
2. They sunk their own ship afterwards
3. Their captives turned the tables, and four pirates left in a lifeboat with the captain of the captive ship
4. The captain attempted to escape, but failed.
5. Other pirates are coming to assist their "comrades"
6. US and other forces are converging on the area
7. The ending is being written... soon, I hope

So... how much civility, sympathy, and such do the pirates deserve? A lot, a little, something in between?

I'm curious...

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

The pirates come from a country with no official governing body. (To them) Who's law are they breaking?
They are armed, yet a peaceful lot, so far. Should not be mixed into the same category as insurgents!
They are men of the high seas, and make a living anyway they can, due to not having a democratic government with free hand outs to the lazy. They deserve fair and equal treatment.

Find the head honcho, make a public example of him, put him in a French jail, and wait and see.

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Well, conditions in Somalia (pirates country of origin) are pretty crappy. Pretty much everyone is poor, as in the kind of poor that people in America can barely even imagine. Essentially our homeless are better off than many of them. So they turn to piracy for funds.

That said, I don't condone criminal activity for the sake of desperation. But I do have some minimal understanding of why they're doing it.

Now, if we just wanted a quick fix, screw the consequences kind of answer, it's quite simple. When a pirate crew takes a ship, sink it. Not the most productive solution, but it would send quite the message to the pirates.

The tricky thing is to solve Somalia's economic woes, and through that eliminate the perceived need to resort to piracy. But then you have to debate who's responsibility it is to rebuild their economy: the US, the UN, neighbouring countries, fellow Muslim nations in the middle east, Somalia itself?

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Navy SEALs FTW!

And, I think they generally give pirates a bad name in our age where we romanticize the classic pirate type. In fact they are nothing but thugs who steal, kidnap, and kill. They can blame the lack of government or their poor upbringing, ect. but in fact they are responsibile for their criminal acts and deserve justice. If they attack Americans, I consider death by U.S. Navy an acceptable and predictable response.

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Well, theft is one thing, but when I heard about the hostage situations I thought differently. They did threaten to kill the guy and kinda dared forces to call their bluff. *Shrug* I dunno, but it is getting out of hand.

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Kill em and if any are captured :beheaded: Argh!

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

This line confuses me,
If they turned the tables, they would not have let them take the captain; right?

I really can't comment on this. I live in a home that most of the World can not even imagine; and it's very average at that. How can I possibly pass judgment on people who are desperate to feed themselves and their families, that they resort to this type of behaviour.

Now, I'm guessing this is the case. If it's just for kicks, or to get rich, that's different.

The correct course (no pun intended) would have been to go to that boat and ask those people for whatever help they can offer. If they had done it peacefully (it's on CBC radio right now...) they could have received from others as well.

CBC just said they are holding the captain for $2 million, or he would be killed. And yes, other pirates are on the way to them.

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Three things the media is using:

1. The "hostages" are the crew of the ships (last count there was 16) in which they have captured and are awaiting ransom. They (hostages) remain on board their vessels where they have facilities, fresh food and water.
2. The captain, Mr. Phillips, exchanged his person for the safe departure of his ship and crew (which is currently very close it's destination). Why is beyond me. This tidbit was in the very first article, and is now hard to locate, and the details were vague at best.
3. The pirates are defiant to law and order as well as multi national naval forces. They are just tools of some wonderful individual who is giving them orders, and paying them peanuts for their hard work to collect millions in ransom. If you kill them, more will step up and replace them. However, remove the "kingpin" and things will begin to change!

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

Don't ever negotiate with terrorists and hostage takers it only provides fuel for further atrocities. Kill every last one of them without hesitation. If the UN / Nato ASEAN / can't come together as one over this issue then there is no hope for any of those organizations. A fully sanctioned navel / army exercise (would it not be great to see US - China - Russia co operate on this) and hunt the bastards to the end of the earth.

Re: What to do with these pirates?
 

You have to take away their ports. That means ground action. Clinton tried that and it was a public relations disaster. But ....What The Hell,,,we're not doing anything....how about a 3 front war? Just the thing to make sure ALL of our reserves are called up. Don't these frikkin' idiots(the guvmint) realize that if they make the reserves a vitually "active" force, then no one will join said reserves.