Pirates!

[ringwraith10]

My mother and I were listening to NPR on the way to school today, and they were discussing pirate activity off the coast of Africa (or something -- I wasn't paying very much attention at first). They were then saying that the US Navy wished to get involved, but there were some sort of boundary issues or something. But basically, they were interviewing some guy who was telling them what solutions the Navy had come up with to scare the pirates away (side note -- this guy had a British accent, so I'm not sure which Navy he was talking about). The solutions they came up with included using big, scary looking ships with which they would intimidate the Pirates, and setting up a big speaker on deck that would emit a very annoying, high-pitched noice which would cause the pirates to leave.

Seriously, these are your best ideas?

So the NPR guy asked what they would do if the pirates boarded the ship and attacked. The guy responded that since the pirates would probably only have kitchen knives, it wouldn't be too hard to shoot them. He seriously expected these pirates to be fighting with nothing but knives from the ship's galley.

Then the NPR guy (with a hint of sarcasm in his voice) asked why the Navy didn't just use cannons to "blow the pirates out of the water"? The guy responded, in all seriousness, that if they used weapons, they would then be the pirates.

If you're not willing to use force against these guys, they must not be such a threat... expecially if they're attacking ships with nothing but kitchen knives!

Ridiculous.

They ended the interview by playing some music that sounded like it came out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Comments

[serria.livejournal.com]

Haha.. that's funny. I mean, I'm all for humane treatment of criminals. But let's be practical, here.

[guen-the-cat.livejournal.com]

They Are a threat. There's talk that they could even be a threat to global oil transportation since they are in the direct route for delivery. And they kidnap and kill people.

They Need to be "blown out of the water." I think the problem is that Somalia is pretty lawless and we're not to a point where we can just go over there and get them without pissing off that country. Which is lame. You can bet your sweet bippy, though that as soon as one of them hijacks an oil transport, we'll take action.

[cowgirl00.livejournal.com]

They *did* hijack an oil transport. A few days ago they captured a Saudi oil ship with an estimated $100 million in oil on board. They're holding it for a $250 million ransom.

[shinigami-ryuuk.livejournal.com]

I don't think it CAN be the US navy: it's standard procedure for deck guards to carry 12gauge shotguns.