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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
USS Bainbride is heading to the scene while the captain of the hijacked ship isbeing held in a small boat. The shipping company is tap dancing around making excuses and saying that armed resistence isn't the answer. Theship is insured so the shipping company won't lose any money....the captive skipper may lose his life, but that doesn't mean much to the shipping company. The Chinese have been dumping weapons in the area arming the pirates. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
Looks like the crew has regained possession of the ship but the Captain is a prisoner of the pirates and being held in a small boat. The nearest american ship is 300 miles away. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
Hard to believe that a shipping company and/or Captain would be that damn stupid to venture in those areas with escorts that far away. Another thing I wonder about... we are suppose to have satilites that can read a license number on a car going down a highway. Why don't they use these satilites to locate these small boats hundreds of miles off shore or be able to see a mother ship with these small boats all around it.
After a few of them are blown out of the water the hijacking will come to a stop. Where are the Patton's and MacArthur's when you need them. I guess when the Nimitz and Halsey's passed on our backbone went with them. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1814
Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
I agree Ralph. Send a few of them to Allah and it will stop. Deadly force is the only thing that those people understand. It is thier way of life. Put a few Coastie GM's on at least our own flagged merchant ships with M-60's and I think they will shy away. If they have mother ships, call in an air strike, film it and send the film to Al Jazera(sp).
What in the world coming to when self defence is no longer shiek??? It is crazy!!
Steamboat sends |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
It is the first time a US ship has been attacked in 200 years. You would thhink that the shippers would get together and set up armmed escort vessels to protect the ships but to them it is more important to save money than defend livesof the men who sail the ships. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1455
| Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
I'm with you on using the spy in the sky to spot these terrorists. They are not pirates whose word gives them an aura of adventure. There could be a temporary 1000 yard buffer zone around all ships in the problem areas. To enter the zone you must have positive ID with verification or you get turned into crispy critters and your parts strewn about the ocean. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
An old MK-37 to the mother ships on some nice moon lit night would end this BS. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1606
| Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
Unless things have changed in the last ten years our satellites have targets that they constantly survey and they're not designed to change orbits and move around for other things. The USSR's philosophy was to go for cheaper satellites that could be launched daily while we went for expensive, sophisticated satellites. The Russians would and could launch a satellite just to check out war games or check military action. They had a lot of cheap not that sophisticated satellites. IMO we've had the same mentality with our satellites as we did with our aircraft and tanks - all high tech and expensive, while the old USSR went for cheaper higher quantity. It's just different philosophies. Our spy satellites, tanks, and military aircraft may be superior from a technological standpoint, but the old USSR had some advantages with their cheaper higher quantity philosophy. For instance the F-22 I believe had no machine gun or cannon armament in the original configuration, but now I believe it has a cannon. Russia's philosophy was a fighter had to have armament for close in fighting and we felt long range anti aircraft missiles were sufficient. The Soviets believe fighteraircraft will need to dogfight and we believe the enemy planes will be shot down before they're seen to the pilot. I've been out of this field for seven years, so maybe that's no longer the philosophy of both countries. I use to buy hardware for military and commercial satellites and previously no longer manufactured fighter aircraft and bombers. That being said the USSR would be more capable than us of sending up a satellite to check on these pirates in the old days.
Edited by Gil 2009-04-10 11:28 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1892
Location: Patterson, New York | Subject: RE: Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
Wall Street Editorial Saturday 4-11-09
The Barbarian Coast
Civility is not weakness.
In one of its more overstretched spins on a news event involving the U.S. military, the New York Times front page yesterday opined that the hostage stand-off with the Somali pirates "showed the limits of the world's most powerful military." What it has in fact showed so far is the apparently still-needed distinction between the behavior of the civilized world and of barbarism.
The U.S. aircraft over the small pirate boat bobbing off the Horn of Africa are prevented from turning that boat into floating scrap only out of concern for the American hero of the moment, Captain Richard Phillips. The Somali pirates holding Capt. Phillips and many other hostages succeed only because, like all criminals confronting the civilized world today, they have reduced the value of human life to zero.
Amid the crisis Wednesday for the Maersk Alabama cargo ship, Capt. Phillips calculated without hesitation that he would put his life at risk to save the lives of his crew members. He traded one life to save many. In some corners of the nation, that honorable act is also well understood as a show of American strength. General David Petraeus, now head of the U.S. Central Command, will surely seek a way in turn to save Capt. Phillips' life. That may require patience.
Out of view of the world's media yesterday, the French government acted against Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden who had captured a French sailboat Saturday. The French navy killed two pirates and captured three. Four hostages, including a child, were freed. One hostage died in the operation. The message sent was that France will act to ensure the safety of all French citizens.
All Americans this weekend are hoping the best for Capt. Phillips. And we would guess that most Americans understand this event has little to do with U.S. military "might" and a lot to do with U.S. self-respect and honor, of which Capt. Phillips and his men have shown plenty.
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Pirates hold American Flagged Ship in Somalia
