In an effort to combat piracy in the Mediterranean Sea, the U.S. ratified in 1797 the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary - otherwise know as the Treaty of Tripoli. Over 200 years later we are again fighting piracy from a North African country. As the administration mulls over a solution, I wonder what the blog would suggest we do. For me the immediate answer is a blockade; blow up anything that ventures into international waters from the Somalia Coast. The long term solution might be just to blow up all of Somalia. It's not like they haven't been a pain in our ass before. ARGHH!!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Treaty of Tripoli
In an effort to combat piracy in the Mediterranean Sea, the U.S. ratified in 1797 the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary - otherwise know as the Treaty of Tripoli. Over 200 years later we are again fighting piracy from a North African country. As the administration mulls over a solution, I wonder what the blog would suggest we do. For me the immediate answer is a blockade; blow up anything that ventures into international waters from the Somalia Coast. The long term solution might be just to blow up all of Somalia. It's not like they haven't been a pain in our ass before. ARGHH!!
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Blockading the Somali Coast would require an entire fleet.
Unfortunately Somalis don't just come from Somalia. Ethnic Somalis are found in sizable numbers in Kenya, Ethiopia and Chad. There are thousands of miles of coastline involved here.
The entire Horn is a breeding ground for miscreants and ne'er do wells.
Place has got foreign entanglement written all over it.
RAC’ster, I must admit, I see eye-to-eye with you on this one. All that it would take to defend a large ship is; a squad of Marines, Navy Seals, Army Infantry or your local volunteer home town fire fighter with a hi-powered water power hose on every ship flying the American flag. A ship flying the American flag is under the jurisdiction of the US; consider it US soil, like an American Embassy. And do blow up any raft, with an engine attached to it; seen 200 miles out at sea…just sink it! It shouldn’t be there to begin with. So you know it must be up to no good.
Unfortunately it's not as easy as that. While you are correct that an attack on an American flagged vessel is akin to an attack on American soil, arming a merchant vessel in any form or fashion changes it's free passage status through territorial waters to one requiring inspection by authorities at most every country's port.
Hardly what you want when carrying products with a limited shelf life.
Plus getting into sea battles runs the risk of the ship, crew and cargo sustaining damage. Expensive liability issues.
The Saudis recently paid a $5 Million Dollar ransom to retrieve a tanker full of crude simply because it was the cheapest way to make the problem go away. Sure they could have put their foot down and sent some guys out there to take back their vessel but the simple fact is one well placed rpg and bye bye tanker and hello environmental disaster.
A military presence over that vast an area of ocean would be extremely difficult and costly to sustain.
I'm afraid that the only way to a long term solution to this problem is a land based campaign. You will have to hit these people where they live.
These people are heroes in their home areas. They represent the only real source of income and security in their country.
Going in is a most unappealing prospect given the anarchy that prevails in that area.
Or...we could just nuke 'em.
GO NAVY! What a heroic act the Navy did today by saving the Capt. and knocking off the pirates with their sharp shoots. Good job! May this send a message to the pirates, “think twice before you decide to mess around with a ship flying the American Flag…baby”!
Yeah Navy and President Obama for letting them do their job!!
NAIROBI, Kenya – Navy snipers on the fantail of a destroyer cut down three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain in a surprise nighttime assault in choppy seas Easter Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between a team of rogue gunmen and the world's most powerful military.
It was a stunning ending to an Indian Ocean odyssey that began when 53-year-old freighter Capt. Richard Phillips was taken hostage Wednesday by pirates who tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama. The Vermont native was held on a tiny lifeboat that began drifting precariously toward Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores.
The operation, personally approved by President Barack Obama, quashed fears the saga could drag on for months and marked a victory for the U.S., which for days seemed powerless to resolve the crisis despite massing helicopter-equipped warships at the scene.
full story here
What you may have missed in this story is Cindy's use of a real hyperlink. You go html girl!!!
Thanks RAC, I'm learning...now on to "Excess" LOL
Well yes and no Doug. You hit em where it hurts by waging a land based campaign but you have to hit em at the heart too. Which is to go chase their asses down at sea. Can you imagine WWII or any other war and not wanting to risk sinking a ship because of the "Environmental" impact? Sheesh. That should NEVER even be a factor in wartime. They're not heroes at home Doug. Yea they have some supporters but the majority of their countrymen are pissed because everytime as a society they start to take a step forward, they get thrown two steps back because of the actions of a few and the repercusions of the international community in the form of sanctions and trade embargos etc. Yea if we went straight after them the Captain and crew may very well have been killed. But without sounding callous don't you think thats always a possibility when you take that job in that part of the world. And if we did go and take action do you think next time some other pirates(or whatever the PC name for them is)might say "Shit I guess we aren't gonna get paid so we might as well not try it". Yea the Saudis paid the ransom. Sooo do you think there might be some connection as to why it happened again? And What about liability. What ever country initiated or supported(financed) the hijacking should be liable. Why should the rescuers? I really want to try to understand where you're coming from but it's hard dude.
Where I'm coming from is the perspective of the freight carriers. They are not in the business of fighting piracy.
They are in the business of moving cargo as quickly and economically as possible. Waging impromptu sea battles with captain towelhead and his merry band of ne'er do wells is not in the schedule. It is neither practical or realistic.
That leaves policing this problem to the navies of the countries impacted by these fuckheads.
And these people do enjoy widespread support from their countrymen. Sure not all of them but plenty of them.
During our last incursion into this area thousands of locals came out of the woodwork intent simply on repelling the infidel invader.
Taking away the home base is like cutting off the head.
It really is almost beyond comprehension what is going on in that area of the world. 9 year olds toting AK's led by 15 year olds.
We can promise to send them all to hell but you have to wonder how much of an impact that's going to have on people that probably feel like that they're already there.
Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. These guys got what they deserved. But we have upped the ante and it could get ugly.
Oh and never mind Dave, I figured out the Hussein reference. He's one of the pirate "leaders". I'm a little slow sometimes.
I watched an interview with some retired General today. He said we should set up specified international sea lanes where ships could travel in safety. Anyone not authorized to venture into these lanes would be sunk. I'm going to guess we have the technology to pull this off.
Doug, from your perspective I will concur. I sure hate to embargo or sanction them though. Their people suffer and do without so much already. I'd rather send a seal team out to board the hijacked ship and kill the bastards. That is their forte. And being an Army vet. I must say, that the Special Forces aint got shit on the Seals. Those are some bad ass dudes.
Mat, when I went to 'Jump School', there were guys from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and even the Coast Guard. But no one, not even the Jump Masters dared mess with the Navy Seals (well they tried, but the Seals came out on top). You see, the Navy Seals go through more training in special opts than all the other armed forces special opts go through, combined. They are some bad ass dudes! But as an Army Vet myself, I respect anyone who wears the US military uniform!
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