Who told you that? Governments have always dealt with terrorists, did you ever learn about the dirty wars in South America? The Contras were terrorists and they had deals with the American Government. So did Al Qaida in the 80's when they were on "our side"

Ain't it the sad,sad truth... :mad:

Pirates
 

The US does work with the Somali warlords now to monitor and eliminate Al Queda cells there. As for the the ship; the boat containts T-72 tanks bought from the Ukraine by Kenya. I picture a navy seal night assault with them killing every pirate aboard. I think as time goes on the pirate ransome rapidly goes down!!

Frank for president! :D

Which goes back to the original problem: money - I'm not sure anybody is willing to put up the money to do all this, I'm pretty sure most governments consider it "acceptable losses" if 1 out of every 20 ships gets taken. (That was a random number, not based on reality btw).

Shooting down the opposition isn't always the answer. What if - And this is just wild conjecturing mind you -
You stop the pirates, yay, shipping lanes are free - The leftover pirates then get so desperate they form into even bigger militias, suddenly you have a border war going on - suddenly there are pirates there as well and it escalates into some of the African countries going to war with Asian countries bordering close to them...

I am of course blowing things wildly out of proportion here - but I think that unless you have a seat in a Captains chair on one of those boats - or live there, you can't really say what should or should not be done.
We lack the whole picture, whilst shooting anything that even resembles a pirate sounds good in theory, we do know that theory and practical applications vary very much from what was intended to the end result you get.

I can understand people getting angry over this and want to kill every pirate there is, but again we don't have the whole picture here, and more often then not, more violence to solve a violent problem is usually an answer you should consider to be the last resort.

We'll see what happens next in the newspapers, but I doubt that the problem will be fixed very soon by a few well placed tactical strikes.

Pirates at Sea?
 

So I missed this the first time round, shame that, because I've lost count of the number of actual real life stories I've read over the last 5 years involving real hijacking at sea.
It's not just actually on the open sea, at these secluded bays.. it's happening there too. I read one story where pirates had commanded or stolen a powerboat and were using it to rob other boats and islands.

It's not like pirates of the carribbean where they are using interceptors and the black pearl.. they are keeping up with modern times and using modern techniques..
What makes Pirates different from terrorists or any every day person that commits a crime?
Nothing.. the fact they come from a different country means squat to me.. because they've done the crime so they should do the time..

The solution is to have a co-existing fully operational customs team that can launch at full speed to intercept these pirates and stop this from happening.. hey even if it reduces the amount of attacks then I can welcome it.
That guy who said we should pay them wants casting out to sea!! Make him walk the plank... :o

A story I heard about, was one about 3 years back, a group of people were on one of those island cruises.. there were about 20 of them on this personal boat.. and they anchored at this small island to sunbathe, after about 45 minutes to 1 hour of being there, this powerboat came out of nowhere and these guys brandished all sorts of weaponry from personal guns to long machetes and threatened all sorts of things with the tourists, they made off with so much money from the holiday makers and threatened to shoot the tourist guides and the skipper of the boat (which would essentially mean the tourists would of been stranded).

For the most times i've read this it seems to happen far out from governed areas, such as Africa and South America.. I think theres always a solution to the problem. I mean if a country doesn't care about it's population that has to be addressed and it shouldnt be ignored. After all if we can go to Afghanistan and Iraq to sort out that country.. shouldn't we do it with the African ones as well? Or is it because those two particular countries.. have something of resource, where as Somalia doesn't..

Doesn't the whole "When he is perfectly able to get a job" thing get contradicted by:




But hey if you feel there should be another war (especially when the US has 2 they can't afford going) more power too you, different strokes for different folks

http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/a...hp?artid=537831

This is of course in Norwegian - but let me translate the important parts here:

"I Somalia er pirater godt organisert og har mye våpen. Piratene har også støtte fra lokalsamfunnene og deler av myndighetene. Noen pirater lover også å finansiere veier og skoler med løsepenger.

Og siden de fleste kapringer ender med utbetaling av millioner av kroner, blir piratvirksomhet regnet som svært lønnsomt i Somalia. Piratene skader sjelden gislene sine, men haler ut tiden i påvente av store utbetalinger.

Og det er en strategi som har vist seg å fungere. Ifølge en rapport fra en London-basert tenketank som kom i forrige uke har somaliske pirater fått utbetalt rundt 30 millioner dollar, eller nesten 200 millioner kroner, i løsepenger hittil i år."

Which translates into:
-----
In Somalia pirates are well organized and have lots of weapons. The Pirates also have support from the local community and parts of the government. Some Pirates even promise to finance roads and schools with ransom money.

And since most hijacks(can't remember the direct word here...) usually end up with millions of money being paid in ransom the piracy profession is very lucrative for Somalia. The Pirates rarely hurt their hostages, but draw out time to get even bigger payments.

Its a strategy that has proven itself to work. According to a rapport from a London based thinktank, Somalian Pirates have thus far this year had 30 million dollars paid to them in ransom.

-----

I can translate more if anyone is interested.

This last piece might be of interest:

"Ifølge Jennifer Cooke ved Center for Strategic and International Studies i Washington er det å ta gisler nøkkelen til piratenes suksess for å holde militærmakter som USA og Russland på en armlengdes avstand.

- Når du holder gisler med våpen, kan du også holde seks krigsskip fra den amerikanske marinen på avstand og de har få andre valg enn å vente, sier Cooke."

Translated:
----
According to Jennifer Cooke from The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington is the taking of hostages the key for the Pirates success in holding military powers such as the US and Russia at an arm lengths distance.

-When you hold hostages with guns to their heads, then you can also hold six battle cruisers from the American Navy at bay, they have little choice but to wait . says Cooke.
----

I might have paraphrased some here and not directly translated everything 100%, but you get the general gist of it.

Yes, I should have stated what I meant more clearly. Somalia has the RESOURCES to make their country great (thus, they don't NEED to steal). They just lack the unity to make something of their country and harvest their resources for their own benefit. Somalia's current state of affairs is due to their lack of unified government. No one will invest in their country because they can't guarantee the safety of contractors and support personnel needed to help them build. You can give handouts, but you can't give Government.

No, I don't believe we need another war. What I believe is we need to quit sending economic aid to countries while our economy is in the crapper, then we could afford to fight these wars.