idiots...of all the ships to attack...

[Matthew Currie]

Our natural inclination is to say "wipe the bastards out," and if we actually could wipe them all out, that might not be such a bad idea, but I think we might credit the folks in charge there with having thought about the issue and decided that it's not really the best thing to do.

Not that I have any sympathy for the pirates, but since there are plenty of them still out there and plenty more waiting to go out, and they're already angry and motivated by political and social grievances (real or fabricated, it hardly matters) as well as greed, it's possible the decision to capture them alive is made wisely in hope that the problem does not become escalated further into a jihad or another excuse for enemies new and old to demonize us more than they already have, as well as to avoid retributive slaughter of captured crews.

 

[tbburg]

Even the missile frigates have a 5" mount, don't they? Heard about a program modification/upgrade that would allow R2D2 to hit surface targets. Anyone know if anything ever come of that?

Edit: Hey Old Man: Its "CWIS".

 

[Boatwrench]

Even the missile frigates have a 5" mount, don't they? Heard about a program modification/upgrade that would allow R2D2 to hit surface targets. Anyone know if anything ever come of that?

Edit: Hey Old Man: Its "CWIS".

5" I don't think so anymore, they are fitted w/ a deck gun but I think it is a 3" rapid fire. R2D2 can now take out surface targets.

 

[Darky]

Our natural inclination is to say "wipe the bastards out," and if we actually could wipe them all out, that might not be such a bad idea, but I think we might credit the folks in charge there with having thought about the issue and decided that it's not really the best thing to do.

Not that I have any sympathy for the pirates, but since there are plenty of them still out there and plenty more waiting to go out, and they're already angry and motivated by political and social grievances (real or fabricated, it hardly matters) as well as greed, it's possible the decision to capture them alive is made wisely in hope that the problem does not become escalated further into a jihad or another excuse for enemies new and old to demonize us more than they already have, as well as to avoid retributive slaughter of captured crews.

These guys are motivated by money mostly. Their people are poor and this is their way of getting some cash. As far as I know they have no real religious motivation or anything and if they just start slaughtering captured crews, they lose a big portion of their ransom demand. I think if the liklihood of death becomes great enough they may get a little less bold, maybe even start staying home.

 

[Matthew Currie]

These guys are motivated by money mostly. Their people are poor and this is their way of getting some cash. As far as I know they have no real religious motivation or anything and if they just start slaughtering captured crews, they lose a big portion of their ransom demand. I think if the liklihood of death becomes great enough they may get a little less bold, maybe even start staying home.

True enough, but what they do and what they say are not always the same, and they claim to have grievances against various parties for having cut off their living as fishermen, and have gotten pretty good at talking the political and environmental talk. It hardly matters whether this is baloney or not - there are plenty of adversaries of the U.S. ready to jump at the opportunity to condemn us for one more thing, and while this may not be enough by itself to guide policy, I imagine it must be a consideration.

I think the other problem is that there are enough of them out there (ed. and enough ships passing through....) that it would not seriously curtail the piracy business if they slaughtered a few crews, even sank a few ships, to prove their seriousness and raise the sttakes before going back to demanding ransom. Even though the risk of reward is balanced by the risk of death, their lives are pretty cheap, and the rewards so very high that we cannot expect them to calculate this as we would. They can pretty well count on their victims putting more value on individual lives than they do, and that gives them a certain strategic advantage as it usually does when one side is crazy or morally bankrupt or both, and the other is not.

 

[joe_peters]

Back in the day--WWI and WWII--they had Q Ships, disguised raiders that were heavily armed and could change their appearance to mimic other ships.

We should equip five or more Q Ships and run them into the danger zones. When attacked, they destroy the pirates. If they take any alive they hold them until their tour of duty is up--months if need be. After a few engagements they can sail out of the danger zone and change their identity to some other innocent looking civilian ship and then go back in to kill more pirates--not capture, KILL.

Eventually the pirates will stop coming out after ships, or we will run out of pirates. Either way, I don't care.