Senator Calls For Blockade

A Republican Senator from Illinois is calling for blockades of pirate ports around the Horn of Africa. I have spoken on this here before. Yeah, it's Africa, but it's our economic interests-it affects your price at the pump.

U.S. Lawmaker Calls for Tougher Action Against Pirates as Threat Escalates - FoxNews.com

So, what do you think ? Blockade? No ? More perhaps ?

Personally, I'm thinking of burning their bases to the ground-leaving them nothing, but that's just me.

 

I'm all for re-doing "to the shores of Tripoli" thing myself, 2011 style, complete with jeep carriers armed with Apaches, small fast attack boats and with a little "no beach out of reach thing" thrown in for good measure. Of course all actions should be led off with the red flag and "Degüello" blasted from very large speakers in the spirit of the air-mobile of "Apocalypse Now". For dessert, low-level carpet bombing, wingtip to wingtip by several bomber wings of B-52s, but that's just me.

We have the people, we have the technology, we have the way....

 

It sounds like a good idea, but I am unsure of the specifics of the area's the pirates are located. Bombing is out of the question. There are just to many women and children in the villages. Commando style raids would most likely have little effect as once they are gone, the pirates will come back out of hiding. Blockades sound good, but would most likely just push them to a different area. The article you posted even mentions that many pirates are now operating from bases in Yemen as well.

One of the big problems I see is that there are too many ships transiting through alone and unarmed. These ships are just asking for trouble. I would be more than willing to wait 6 hours for a build-up of a half dozen or more ships to be escorted through by a single Destroyer/Frigate. This could make the area safer for these ships, and cut down on large numbers of the warships patrolling the area, while saving all countries involved money, and depriving it from the criminals.

 

I don't see it happening.

The US doesn't have enough ships & sailors to begin to blockade all the ports and still maintain our fleet commitments around the world.

But the best reason piracy continues can be found from this statement from the linked article

Go back to the solutions of the 16th and 17th centuries if you want to stop piracy.
Punishment

Perhaps if we had stayed in Somalia and finished the job in the early 90s', we would not have the problem we have today...

 

Senator's ask for a great many things, most requests go un answered.

 

Yeah, and do you remember how that first blockade turned out.

We lost one of the largest ships in the fleet. The blockade didn't work, and we would not pay "tribute", so we paid a "ransom" instead. To add insult to injury, two years after the conclusion of the first "war", the pirates were back at it again.

Still, the second "war" turned out much better for us...

 

I've said it before and I still think it's a good (old) idea. Q-ships, disguised as expensive yachts, freighters, etc, ready to repel and destroy all boarders and would-be pirate wannabees at a moments notice.

 

Q-Ships are a good idea, but I fear it would not fly for long in the US. Basicly a Q-ship is an ambush at sea, and the American public would overtime dislike the taste of its forces beeing seen as bushwackers. The image of the noble cavalry charging over the hill to the rescue is far more palatable.

 

That maybe so, but the recent hit on Osama had no bugles, flags flying or cavalry charging with sabres raised and it was all the rage these last few weeks. It was a well-planned drive-by (well, maybe fly-by), plain and simple. The US public is getting desensitized by drive-bys and hits these days by watching the news and playing video games you know. Instead of Q-ships, call them "Hammer-Ships", as in hammer the b@$t@rd$. That name is sure to get the public interested in a positive way.

And not to be crude and rude, I'm getting tired of politicians and policy makers falling back on the old "what would the public think" thing when avoiding making plans like this. They don't care what the public thinks when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, or when stealing candy from a baby, or copping a feel on an intern. Just make sound plans, go in, do the job get it over with asap. The public will either love it or leave it, and after being tied down in the Middle East since October of 2001 they will take a win anytime, especially when it's daring and exciting. If they really want to get the public on board, when making announcements at press releases of successful missions, they could do a "Patton" movie type lead in. That would be great for ratings too.

Just think of what the movie rights would bring in alone....

 

A little different situation OBL was public enemy Number 1, while the Somali pirates are nameless and faceless to Americans. Further after every pirate attack our media reminds us that these are 'poor fishermen' with no other prospects. They almost make it out like we are at fault for having something worth stealing! I personaly have no problem with such a strategy, but how long would our current administration like to be seen shreading unsuspecting 'poor black fishermen' from a impoverished nation?

 

Another part of this problem is that the pirates aren't the "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum" type pirates of old, living in Port Royal, and celebrating their "pirate life". Nor are they akin to the Tripoli pirates of the 18th and early 19th Century, where piracy was government policy.

Most of them are at best "part time" pirates, but generally simply fishermen.

 

For a very interesting read on this topic, I suggest one that was published in 2005 named The Pirate Coast by Richard Zacks and Raymond Todd.

This more or less tells the lesser know part of that "raid on Tripoli" by William Eaton, the hardships he faced in maintaining his "coalition" of Muslim and Christian warriors, in a brutal 500 mile march across deserts before he could assault the stronghold and free the American hostages.

 

How many "simple fishermen" you know go fishing with RPGs and AKs?

 

I've heard that while the pirates in the Putnam region (???) are mostly ex- fisherman, but not in other area's. In other area's pirates are mostly made up of former militia-men. One has even stylized itself as a professional pirate navy.

 

The problem with that group of them is that is exactly what they don't do. Sometimes they take out some weapons, sometimes they just fish. I suppose it depends on who can "rent' what from whom and at what price and for how long. There are some who also have made this a trade (as mentioned by "mikebatzel") but the last I read about those who were captured they weren't of that group of former militiamen, but just fishermen who thought they would "give it a go" since it seemed such an easy path to riches.

I believe this is going to be a much more difficult "nut to crack" than some want to think.

 

but in their pirate time they rape women, deny medicines to the hostages ... ask the sailors. So it´s propaganda.

 

Maybe if they used these implements to fish they wouldn't have to be part time pirates...ever throw a homemade pipe bomb in a pond? An RPG would kill a bunch of fish...

 

Perhaps a "security force", a privately-hired company, which utilizes Q-ships and is available for "rent" from any country with ships on the water? Sorta a "hey, we stopped a bunch of skinnies waving AK's in a threatening manner towards your ship", or a "hey, everybody chip in and we'll patrol the coasts for another month or two"...which would free up Naval resources for use elsewhere. As for the "innocent fishermen" who decided to give piracy a whack and see what came of it....sorry, but if I were to try robbing a bank just because I watched a movie where some guy got rich, no court in the world is gonna find me cute and cuddly and worthy of compassion "because I only tried it once to help pay for gas to get to my regular day-job". Once you've gone that route, you've crossed the line. Sorry. Besides....the first month or two when large quantities of "pirates" sorta just don't come back to port, and the sharks seem to be extremely well-fed....and the innocent fisherman will think about staying an innocent fisherman. And if the pirates decide to move ports? Sure. The Q-ships move with them. Don't let up. And don't let the news get ahold of the story for quite some time....I'd love to see some pirate faces when all of a sudden, only 1 in 10 boats is coming back....

 

...or piss off something REALLY big....hehehehee