Goodbye Barry - Welcome Home AMERICA!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Somali Pirates Operating Unchecked By International Naval Forces

A very confusing day in the media - "Pirates Capture US Freighter" ... oops, correction: "American Crew Retakes Freighter From Pirates" ... no, wait a minute: "American Freighter Captain Held By Pirates". There must be a story there somewhere, although the media has done an excellent job of obscuring it.

So, what's new about this particular story of piracy on the high seas? Nothing really. The Somali pirates "attacked" the huge freighter with their little rubber boats. Why were they able to do so, successfully? Because on their little rubber boats they had fully automatic assault weapons, RPGs and rocket launchers. Little did they know that the fearless crew of the ship they were attacking had been trained to defend themselves against pirate attacks at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy... using fire hoses! Now, I don't know about you folks, but if I were forced to confront armed pirates, a fire hose would not be my weapon of choice! What do you call a man who brings a fire hose to a gunfight? The loser!

I don't suppose anybody has considered narrowing the shipping lanes to a manageable width, like say ... 10 miles wide, and then have ships of the international naval contingency every 25 miles (or so) along that Indian Ocean route beginning about 400 miles outside Somali waters?
Or, alternatively, arm those merchant ships to the point that an attack would be foolish beyond belief! Twin .50s fore, aft and amidships, with shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles at each station. Perhaps that would inspire the pirates to have second thoughts about their chosen field of endeavor.

I could be wrong about this, but it's highly unlikely!

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