Pirate solution

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=af9WnV_oByg8&refer=worldwide

I may be missing something, but it appears these guys are commandeering oil tankers and other large craft by storming them with the equvilent of the PT-73 (I'm really old for bringing up a McHale's Navy reference).

Why is this hard to stop?

1. You surround the oil tanker with a few boats, and blow the rowboats the Somalis have protecting it out of the water, and let them sit there until they starve.

2. There are only so many ports out of Somolia. Send a few medium-sized cruisers out there and shell the hell out of each one.

3. Cover large tankers and barges with a few ships that we use for Coast Guard cutters. You can't tell me these yaboos are better equipped in the form of weapons?

What the hell is so hard about solving this problem? This is like letting a fleet of SS Minnows bother you.

 

How are you going to cover EVERY tanker and barge in those waters? Provide one "bodyguard" ship to each barge that sets sail? Yeah, you and what army navy?

Whose ships are you going to use -- we're already fighting on two fronts, so it ain't gonna be us, is it? Think we can convince Britain or Australia to send their ships? Who's going to pay for it?

You really think blowing up a few pirate boats is going to "solve" the problem? What about the next time it happens? What about when it happens somewhere else? You really think there's a military "solution" to every act of terrorism?

"Shell the hell out of it" is not a viable foreign policy, no matter what the neo-cons say.

 

Look, we're talking about Somolia. It's not like they have the Spanish Armada. How the hell many boats can they have? If we blow up a few, that will probably deplete their entire Navy.

And hell yeah, someone can cover every tanker. How many of those are cruising those straits every day?

I don't think there's going to be a Somoli insurgency that will drag this out for 8 years. When it comes to a dipshit country like this, you can shell the hell out of them. It's not like they're out there minding their own business. They're criminals, not freedom fighters.

We could probably solve this problem with a few squadrons of Sea Scouts and Coast Guard trainees.

 

Can't we just send Russell Crowe after them?

 

We're dealing with pirates, not the country's navy - if they even have one.

You can't start a sea war because there's always a chance that a stray RPG or bullet gets through and breaches a hull on one of those tankers...then what?

 

You're missing a few things, but I will point out that a McHale's Navy reference is always appropriate.

First, if you barracade the ships until the pirates starve, the crew of the ship will have long-since starved. They'd prefer not to do that.

Second, these pirates aren't exactly leaving from Pier 66. They can push into the water anywhere, so shelling's not an answer.

The idea to cover the ships with naval or Coast Guard vessels won't work because there are too many ships in that area, and too much water.

You'd think this would be an easy solution, but apparently these pirates have the world by the short ones.

Whatever you do, be sure you hide Fuji before Capt. Leadbottom shows up!

 

Heard this earlier this week. Sounds simple enough.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97241722

A former British army pilot recently launched a business called Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions. For $30,000, Nick Davis will arrange a team of three private guards to travel on a boat and scare away potential pirates. He has teams now on seven ships in the Gulf of Aden. Davis tells Steve Inskeep that the guards do it all without guns.

 

This calls for Steve Zissou!

 

I'm going to find it and I'm going to destroy it. I don't know how yet. Possibly with dynamite.

 

A tanker already has the high ground advantage in terms of firing lines. Just arm them.

I would think putting a few RPGs on the tankers themselves would do the trick.

Teach one guy how to use them and tell him to blow the hell out of anything that makes a threatening move towards the tanker. Problem solved.

 

I like Armchair's call. Either that or have a couple cruisers go up and down the coast and blow the hell out of any ship that has so much as a BB gun on it. Well, maybe not to that extreme, but you get the idea. I'm not the type that shoots first, asks later, but this might be a good policy in this situation.