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LadyEllen -> RE: American mariners retake ship from Somalian pirates.... (4/11/2009 4:41:57 AM)
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Meanwhile, back in the real world.......... this ship is very, very unusual to have a US crew aboard, indeed very unusual to be US flagged. Methinks there may be something else other than food aid aboard for it to be crewed and flagged like this rather than having the usual motley crew of underpaid south east Asians and/or east Europeans and Panamanian flagged. And these US mariners, by the speedy manner in which they retook the ship, indeed in the manner they resisted at all - well, I'd wager theyre not your run of the mill crew - which again suggests something a little unusual on board that might have warranted a "special" crew - or maybe even nothing really on board and this is the first of a decoy fleet but things havent gone entirely to plan.
The problems of arming these vessels, or having armed force aboard, are clear, and theyre not entirely about insurance companies' reluctance to provide cover, ports' reluctance to welcome vessels so equipped or crewed or other such factors. However satisfying this particular instance, about which many questions remain to be answered, a general policy or even a selective policy of arming vessels and/or crew, and/or a policy of heavily armed decoy ships only raises the ante - the pirates will come in more numbers and more heavily armed and with an expectation to fight and kill to secure a vessel.
And when we consider the usual crews of these ships - poorly paid (if paid at all in some cases) third world and second world mariners who remain at sea to provide for their otherwise destitute families, do we really think that they would be willing to undertake the additional risk to their life and limb from engaging in combat to defend the vessel? Would you defend your factory or office with the risk of death or serious injury if you were being paid what you are now? How about if you were being paid say a few dollars a day?
And of course, there is a hell of a difference between having a gun, being able to operate that gun safely and accurately and being able to operate it safely and accurately when someone is shooting back. Throw into that the somewhat urban environment on board a ship and one has a recipe for disaster with untrained or undertrained crew, frightened witless and engaging in the spray and pray school of combat tactics - as likely to kill one another as any pirate.
So here is a wild idea to undermine the piracy. Not popular for many I'm sure, but worth a try given nothing else is working. The pirates are doing all this because they live in a country which is a sack of shit - they need the money basically. Some of that money no doubt goes into hands we'd rather it didnt. How about we recruit the pirates - or some of them - pay them handsomely to work for us to stop the others attacking merchant shipping (the insurers would pay for it no doubt), provide intelligence etc. And of those remaining in their piratical lifestyle we offer rewards to rat them out and we send a few squadrons of attack helicopters to pay them a visit at home. Those we turn win as they no longer have to risk their lives for their incomes, we win in that the piracy is reduced and then eliminated - the only losers are those who retain their gangsterism on the high seas.
And once we have destroyed those remaining as pirates - and we know who the others are since they now work for us....
E
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