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Should ships be armed to combat pirates?

Arm the ships?

  • Yes

    Votes: 152 81.3%

  • No

    Votes: 20 10.7%

  • Offer the pirates carrots

    Votes: 15 8.0%
  • Total voters
    187
#161
kcolyar said:
As someone who has carried a badge and a gun for 20 years, there's only one way to deal with thugs...... Let's rehabilitate them and give them welfare, free things and give them more rights. Its the American way.



I am being sarcastic of course. Shoot all of them, if they approach your ship fire a couple of shots. Then sink them!!!!
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send them here to minnesota we are waiting for them with open arms.....:scowl:
 
#165
u gotta hand it to the news for stirring up this particular beehive.. piracy has been a problem for a while u just never heard about it.. popular news wanes and waxes, a few years ago all you heard about were shark attacks, even tho, statisticly shark attack numbers and severity was down.. a few years before that it was school shootings, even tho school shooting numbers where down..

i dont know in this particular instance if pirate attacks are up down or staying the same but you have to look at frequency vs risk in violent acts.. this can be graphed mind you.. normally speaking a violent act that occurs frequently poses very little risk when u compare it to world population, ie a terrorist act such as a road side bomb in which lets say for the sake of argument 5 people die. where as a nuclear bomb has a very low frequency of occuring but is a huge risk yet again in terms of number of human lives lost. i am not trying to quantify human life and any life lost in this manner is one that should make u feel some hint of sadness but if u think in that manner you can see why stopping dangerous groups from acquiring nuclear arms is more important than stopping a pirates from taking ships, especially when they are returning prisoners unharmed as long as ransom is payed.. refusing to pay ransom seems like money has more value than human life.


*AS ALWAYS THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS*
 
#166
There's got to be an easy answer somehow. I'm surprised the shipping community hasn't already consulted with TB. Someone contact Disney and find out how to do the electrified deck from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Major props to the captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama and the US Navy personnel.
 
#169
rustynuts said:
Reading an article about the rescue now, and one of the pirate leaders had this to say:



And seizing a cargo ship isn't an act of aggression? Some people sure have some whacked out thought processes.
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i love how they're trying to be intimidating. so what, they're going to declare war on the u.s. now? i don't think they're going to like the last chapter of that story.
 
#171
machine gewehr said:
Declare war?to declare a war you need 2 countries,since there's no The Republic of Somalian Pirates that'd be one sided target practice JT.But still you gotta give it to the man,challenging a big country as a pirate with an AK-47 takes balls.:p
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Someone tell that to the War on TerrorTM​ and the War on DrugsTM​. That said, I'd imagine that US are little more wary about ignoring threats by angry men with AK-47's in seemingly insignificant countries following recent history.
 
#172
Mark Latimour said:
Someone tell that to the War on TerrorTM​ and the War on DrugsTM​. That said, I'd imagine that US are little more wary about ignoring threats by angry men with AK-47's in seemingly insignificant countries following recent history.
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Terror (a concept/act of humans),drugs (substances) and republics are different categories you know what I mean.I haven't seen an ex. declaring war on a country you know.:p

I agree with your post but also this situation is a bit different then the other angry man with AK-47s.The other man with AK-47s were soldiers of a so called Republic(republic my ***).OTOH these guys are not soldiers of Somalia,they're pirates from Somalia.
 
#173
machine gewehr said:
Terror (a concept/act of humans),drugs (substances) and republics are different categories you know what I mean.I haven't seen an ex. declaring war on a country you know.:p
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I am sure we are only weeks away from one news service or another running the banner "War on PiracyTM​" as their banner.

I agree with your post but also this situation is a bit different then the other angry man with AK-47s.The other man with AK-47s were soldiers of a so called Republic(republic my ***).OTOH these guys are not soldiers of Somalia,they're pirates from Somalia.
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I think you are confused about which particular man with an AK-47 I am referring to. In any event, the point is that one man and his ideals can have a big impact even on a "super power" and the threat shouldn't (and probably won't - in future) be ignored just because the idea sounds comical.
 
#174
Mark Latimour said:
I am sure we are only weeks away from one news service or another running the banner "War on PiracyTM​" as their banner.

Yes thats very likely.OTOH I don't believe pirates are going to declare war agains USA.JT made a sarcastic comment and I took it one step further.

I think you are confused about which particular man with an AK-47 I am referring to. In any event, the point is that one man and his ideals can have a big impact even on a "super power" and the threat shouldn't (and probably won't - in future) be ignored just because the idea sounds comical.
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I agree on the part "never under estimate your enemy" but the idea pirates inflicting serious harm on a country,on their soil is a bit too far I believe.they can fire a few rounds RPGs maybe but a small barrage from a destroyer is more then enough to vaporise a small pirate boat.

However if they receive have too much money,they can get way too dangerous I don't deny that too.:)
 
#178
Marley's Ghost said:
Let's ask this - If your family had no food, there was no prospect of a job at home, and no government to go to for help, what would you do? :confused:

These people are desperate. Fix Somalia's government and economy and the pirates go away.
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Thats what I suggested in an earlier post,I'd expand my post now but I just deleted it.It goes political.

I'm going to spam JT some political pms now.:ninja:

:p
 
#179
Marley's Ghost said:
Let's ask this - If your family had no food, there was no prospect of a job at home, and no government to go to for help, what would you do? :confused:

These people are desperate. Fix Somalia's government and economy and the pirates go away.
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bravo, you got it! what most people don't realise is that it's probaly much cheaper to sort out somali a bit then sending an armada of navy seals. navy selas just look cooler than a bag of money and it's more exciting to run a 'war on piracy TM' (thats a good one mark) 24/7 news special than a story on a wire transfer.
 
#180
Marley's Ghost said:
Let's ask this - If your family had no food, there was no prospect of a job at home, and no government to go to for help, what would you do? :confused:

These people are desperate. Fix Somalia's government and economy and the pirates go away.
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so my tax money should go to fixing a government and country that would probably shoot us in the back after we are done fixing it when i can barely afford to send my son to daycare?

no thanx lets help the people who pay the damn taxes around here before we go off helping others
 

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