On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 01:42:13PM -0500, Sailingdream wrote:
> I say grab the pirates. Put them on a aircraft and fly over Somalia
> and take them home. Drop them off at 1000ft. Human bombs.
While that may be emotionally satisfying, it would do nothing to address
the problem - which is easy access to unprotected yachts from the first
world by people living at the edge of poverty. Those are the
"interfaces" where that kind of problems are guaranteed to happen.
One possible answer that _would_ address it while still being short of
the rather drastic Pompeius Magnus solution that I mentioned: if
(really, *when*) it happens next, blockade that coast. Any vessel large
enough to carry more than one person leaving any harbor to be turned
back. Announce that any harm coming to the hostages will mean that the
blockade will remain in place until the responsible parties *and their
entire families* are turned over, and their villages are burned by the
ground by the locals. Those are the basics; modify as local conditions
dictate.
We've _done_ successful pacification and interdiction in Japan, in
Korea, in Vietnam, lots of other places; other armies have done it for
thousands of years before us. We _know_ how to do it effectively;
there's no question about this. The only "problem" is that it's not
"politically expedient" to do it that way today. This is why Americans,
etc. are dying. We're not fighting a war against a Geneva signatory,
folks; there's no "gentleman's agreement" in operation here, no shaking
hands with the winner and best wishes all around. Long past time that we
woke up to that reality - or our people are going to keep dying like
this.
Ben
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