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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Crazed Chinese fisherman make for more entertaining viewing. Instead of playing bumper boats next time shoot them up.
Coincidentally, the Malaysians also retook a vessel from Somali pirates on the same day.
Buggered link.
crappy video hosting; but I suppose it’s rather popular right now…
^ A 50-second clip of it is on youtube too, and streaming quickly. No first-person shooter stuff released.
Bad fucking week to be a pirate in Somalia.
This should find its way into the next Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
The EU navy was not terribly impressed. They say commando raids will endanger the hostages and turn pirates into dangerous terrorists who use hostages as human shields. But so far EU naval tactics aren’t working. Something else has to be done. How about invading Somalia and putting some sort of a functioning government in there?
http://www.1310news.com/news/world/article/172943–eu-naval-force-says-it-won-t-change-approach-to-fighting-piracy-raids-may-endanger-hostages
@dogbertt
Sorta reminiscent of the cargo ship mission in the first Modern Warfare. Or the bonus one in the airplane.
CM #7
Fully agree with you. I think the pirates should be treated as they were in the past – summarily executed. Being a pirate in Somalia is just too profitable not to be one. If the world’s navies can make it less profitable and a hell of a lot more dangerous then maybe this practice can be curtailed. I am very glad that South Korea took the actions it did.
As for the part about going into Somalia and putting in a functioning government – go for it – but leave it to the EU or the Asian powers – the United States has enough on its plate.
An interesting news about the captain of the captured ship who did his best to sabotage the pirate’s goal of taking the ship to the port in Oman by zig zagging the ship to buy time and added water to oil, stopping the ship numerously. As soon as the rescue operation began, the angry pirates opened fire on the captain. They must have been poor shooters because the wounds that the captain got is not reportedly life threatening. He underwent surgery and he is heavily sedated and reportedly unconscious but expected to survive.
#9, I was thinking more along the UN. Despite its problems, I think the UN actions will work this time – because Chinese and Russians who are usually the ones to sabotage any actions, are also fed up too. Basically, everybody needs this body of water opened, because everybody’s economy is based on the waters being opened to navigation.
Wasn’t the UN + the US trying to sort out Somalia a few years ago? Went very badly, didn’t it?
Rather than trying the fix the country just fix the problem. Take the fight to the pirates’ doorsteps. Several years ago I wrote that these pirates are located in a few well-known havens, such as Eyl, and that they are easily identifiable – they spend their booty on mansions and luxury 4x4s in otherwise impoverished villages. And of the villagers? They’re accomplices. Shelling or bombing may help these folks see the folly of their ways. Of course one warning salvo could be sent to an unpopulated area near each village to put the fear of God in ‘em.
I’m glad we still live in a world of pirates and warlords. Fuck that CNNGay list. Somalis and Pashtun are the coolest mofos left on the planet – that last holdouts.
^ It’s telling who you admire. Pashtuns aren’t mofos; as avid practitioners of male rape they’re brofos. You’ll gladly enjoy yourself.
It’s fun to be so cavalier
Today’s 8th Pashtun cock in your rear
Assume the position, Quasimodo.
oh you poor thing…
/walks away while shaking his head…
heh, didn’t even see your lame attempt at poetry.
Do you often wax poetic about anal sex?
From the EU response: “Our priority is the safety of the hostages. The pirates are using the hostages as human shields and if we get too close to the pirates they threaten to kill the hostages… I am sure they will carry out the threats if we got too close,” O’Kennedy said.
First of all, is Paddy O’Kennedy a cool name or what? That’s Depeartment of Redundancy Department-level Irishness. Second, perhaps if these skinnies got blasted out of the water every time they approached a ship, or their villages were napalmed and then salted, they might cease this anti-social behavior and there wouldn’t be any effing hostages. Typical EU muddleheads have cause and effect backwards.
#12 Seouldout, I was wondering about the same thing, so I found a handy little US Army pamphlet online that gives details about the US Army’s actions in Somalia from 1992-1994. Page 24 covers the withdrawal of the US from Somalia. Link starts at the introduction, but it’s pretty easy to maneuver around the page.
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/Somalia/Somalia.htm#intro
I agree that raids will endanger hostages, and the fallout of the Somali pirates claiming that they’ll take vengeance on Koreans is, well, bad. But this one worked, and hopefully will somehow lead to the end of this kind of piracy. Music is much less violent.
Seouldout, next time, choose someone who can requite it, one-up it, dish it up or whatever, rather than act all priggish. Don’t wanna see your humor fall to waste!
“Pirates made 2010 the worst year so far for shipping, As many as 53 ships were hijacked at sea, 1181 sailors taken hostage and eight killed in 2010″ on the wire..
I say it’s time to bring back Commerce Raiders/ auxiliary cruiser but this time instead of raiding merchant vessel, the new raiders are used to bait and kill pirates, this suggested action on #12 should make them see the error of their ways..
So what kind of insurance policies they offer against piracy, how much it weighs on the cost of of cargo ?
I liked the poem too.
if you think something like this would put the fear of God into your average Somali i suspect you never met many specimens from that particular corner of Africa (including Eritrea and Ethiopia)….remember what Paul Kagame, the Tutsi President of Rwanda once told the Hutu-backing French:” Kigali can stomch more casualties than Paris”.
Resurrect Leslie O’Bannion, Stephen Decatur, Richard somers and Edward Preble
@24:
ik vind het altijd zo ontzettend leuk wanneer mensen kennis laten tonen waarvan de meeste mensen helemaal geen idee hebben!
The English version (courtesy of Google Translate):
Curious minds can venture out onto the Interweb, I guess.
Of course you’re right. That act is merely cover for those who’ll shell the villages: “The pirates’ havens were given one last warning, and the piracy continued. Que Sera Sera”
@24 – That detachment led by Presley O’Bannon, a mere lieutenant , was in 1805, about 150 years before the US was to become a superpower. Washington sought to create an international force to face the pirates, but found no will for it in Europe. The Marines possessed arms no superior to the pirates, were numerically far fewer, had allies that were constantly threatening to mutiny, and certainly didn’t possess any other material advantage. Despite all these disadvantages, the Yanks stormed the fortress and the day was theirs.
I reckon Korea and Malaysia could pull off such a feat in Somilia’s pirate villages. Why wait for the Somalis to act on their threat to kill?
Thanks for correcting the name
Think people need to look a little deeper into the problem about why these people turn to piracy. Sure, a lot of them are doing it for an exciting life of crime, but an awful lot of them are doing it for their only source of income. Lots of the pirates are former fisherman who have been pushed out of fishing by excessive fishing in Somali waters by primarily European fishing boats illegally fishing in the waters (again the lack of government helps out as well as the fishing boats paying of the already corrupt ‘government’ in Somalia, or by the dumping of toxic wastes into the waters of the coast by again mainly European countries. So instead of saying kill them all, someone needs to look into why these people are doing it and maybe find other solutions to get them out of piracy. But hey, disliking one person was good enough of an excuse for GWB to invade and occupy a country, might as well occupy another country in the name of piracy…
You think those bleeding heart Euros will sit quiet while Asians hunt down and kill poor little black folks?
@26:
The English version (courtesy of Google Translate):
I have no idea who those are.
Google translate gave you *that*? That’s not really accurate.
Rather, I was poking gentle fun at people who like to share their knowledge of obscure facts in an open forum where they know that most people around them will have no idea what they are talking about. Sometimes this can be done to chide one’s audience to lift their game and do more reading, but most often comes across as being somewhat boastful of one’s own particular brand of erudition. En soms doe ik het ook!
By the way, JieunK, apropos of the above, I notice that Sonagi is back in the Marmot’s Hole again. I wonder if you ever received an apology for the time she tried to school you in Korean (님 vs 씨) last year.
“Google translate gave you *that*? That’s not really accurate.”
Sorry, I had to hazard a guess. LOL
Re: the latter part of the comment
Well, I could’ve been at fault for failing to earn trust.
@30 – Will the bleeding hearts sit by quietly? Of course not. But it’s only a fuss. Can Korea and Malaysia withstand it?
After so many years of the Americans, Brits and Aussies doing almost all the heavy lifting I say it’s about time some of the beneficiaries pitch in. Long overdue. It ain’t like they’re being asked to take on the Chinese. Hit the beach, lads!
It almost seems unsporting to wipe out some pirate villages… why all this bloodthirst? The rescue mission was succesful and it will discourage pirates from taking Korean ships in the future. The pirates made similar threats after the Maersk Alabama incident, but it was all talk. They haven’t taken an American ship since. They only go after easy targets because ultimately, they are cowards and they’re in it for the money.
@25: just let your fingers do the stroking thru wikipedia, which is hardly a chore ( or raising one’s game).
#27: Hmmmm….Euros not willing to take on pirates. Some things never change.
#29: Glad to see the pirates hired a PR agency with all the ransom dosh they’ve been piling up. You might add that in Korea we’d say they have a constituional right to earn a living like anyone else.
#31: Some of us knew exactly what Sperwer was talking about. Others can consult Wikipedia. It’s not like we have to physically go to the nearest library anymore to figure this stuff out.
Just when everything about this story was making me feel good:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/25/2011012500365.html
…and to think that just yesterday we were talking about keel-hauling the scurvy bastages.
#37, Really? Missiles? What is this, Escape Velocity (hey, it was a fun game)? You’d think that a threat as big as a pirate missile frigate would be dealt with almost immediately. Then again, from what I’ve seen, the Korean English language media isn’t always what one would describe as accurate, so it might just be speculation.
Anyway, a hostage swap could be good, as long as it got Koreans home safely. Do the swap, then immediately blow them out of the water. Works for me.
cmm, that’s a truly sad link…
hamel, what Sperwer wrote was not “obscure”. Some people are just too lazy to use Google. And anyone who ever heard the words to the Marine’s Hymn ought to know about “The Shores of Tripoli”… Willful ignorance is as cool as the rest of the dhimmi package…
tinyflowers, this isn’t about sport. It’s about protecting innocent people (i.e., sailors, ship owners, etc.)from the human vermin who CHOOSE to steal from others. I absolutely reject the idea that anyone needs to be a pirate to live. These filth are just another wing of al Qaeda… BUT, we’re too weak morally to do what really needs to be done in Somalia. We proved that under Clinton.
I’m not sympathetic to the pirates. I just don’t see the point of going into Somalia. The problem won’t really be solved with a military intervention, short of a full scale invasion and nation building project (and who wants to pay for that?). Do we really need another Black Hawk Down scenario? Better to just lure them out and sink them in the open sea.
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