Give Me A Break
If you think the tea parties were historical distortions, Australian Broadcasting has a new entry: ‘Bring back private pirate hunters’
A US politician known for broadsides at US foreign policy says Somali piracy has an age-old solution: “Letters of marque” empowering private citizens to chase the seaborne scoundrels from the oceans.
Republican representative Ron Paul and a handful of conservative theorists say it’s time that the US Congress used the technique – pioneered by European powers hundreds of years ago as a way to wage naval warfare on the cheap.
We are one of the few countries that hasn’t banned letters of marque, therefore, they are not recognized by most of the world, who would take a dim view of the practice and might sink the privateers as another type of pirate, or try them as pirates if they are apprehended. Further, the profit was the booty of the pirates, and these pirates have only open boats with a few weapons, so where’s the profit?
Why does every bad idea of the last thousand years have to be tried again?
6 comments
Why does every bad idea of the last thousand years have to be tried again?
OK… I’m guessing that was intended rhetorically? 😉 But… since you asked…
As I’ve mentioned once or twice before… The GOPhers have no imagination and no creativity. Believing in fantasy and twisting facts to suit their own narrow views and ancient failed ideas does not equate to imagination or creativity. :)Therefore… what else WOULD they do than forever trying the same old failed and lunatic ideas? 🙂 It’s very simple… In their World, if you try and try, and try again ad infinitum… it has to work eventually! Facts to the contrary be damned. It’s a simple matter of statistical probability. And besides… *everyone knows*tm they *they* never fail… it’s everyone else who causes them to fail by not doing what they are damned well told! A distinction with a difference. 😉
😆
The days when pirates were summarily hanged from a yardarm are over. They are criminals and, if captured, have to be turned over to a court of jurisdiction and prosecuted. Privateers have no recognized powers of arrest in East Africa, and the few countries will to try and imprison them, want to be paid for their trouble.
The French and US Navies provide evidence, often video, of the crimes, and have embassies in place to assist prosecutions. The privateers are not going to want to be bothered.
The US didn’t eliminate letters of marque because they are written into the Constitution and it’s a major project to amend it. At the time that everyone else was eliminating them, there wasn’t much of a permanent US Navy. The US didn’t have a significant standing Army, or permanent Navy until after the Civil War, so letters of marque, like the state militias, were the basis for raising a force for a war.
Given the disastrous role of mercenaries on Iraq, I don’t see the US Congress being all that anxious to start approving the letters any time soon.
Because it’s vigilante justice, number one, and number two, you know they wouldn’t be paid jack shit to do the government’s dirty work.
If Ran Paul thinks it’s a solution, let him buy a boat and go do it with some of his supporters. “There is no free lunch” is the mantra of libertarians, as Paul claims to be, so he had better have a profit available if he wants to pursue this.
The world stopped doing this because it was a disaster.
To me, this is yet another example of why the whole ‘War on Terror’ is a sham. If it were serious, the US would have worked with other Nations who all have a vested interest in stopping international piracy. But that would be like work. Much easier to invade what was considered a very soft target for Oil and other benefits. How’s that going BTW? 😉 😆
BTW,these ‘Somali Pirates’ are not the only ones, they are simply the latest. Pirates have been operating in International waters forever.
Hell, when hasn’t there been piracy in Asia. The Silk Road was considered a better bet because of it, and when the Europeans arrived, they brought their version with them.
I’ll have another “War on Terror” post up shortly about unintended consequences for some of your guys.