EU Forces Attack Somali Pirates

joshuatree said:

The new EU mandate allows warships or aircraft to fire at fuel barrels, boats, trucks or other equipment stowed on beaches, but it is not aimed at hitting the pirates themselves. It also bars the deployment of land troops.

The EU luckily doesn't see it that way.

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Whatever works, as long as the piracy is down, it will have my vote.

This will only fuel further escalation of the problem. Now instead of wanting money, they probably will decapitate few sailors along the way. The more you kill their brothers and comrades, the more sailors they will chop up.

PhageHunter said:

Whatever works, as long as the piracy is down, it will have my vote.

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野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。

Fighting pirates is like fighting weed. You need to fix the underlying cause, or it will simply sprout up again shortly after.

Fighting pirates is like fighting weed. You need to fix the underlying cause, or it will simply sprout up again shortly after.

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But hey, they means endless fighting and lots of opportunities for navies to get combat experience. A naval commander must make the best of the situation handed to it by the civilian leaders. The PLAN should be thankful it has been handed an opportunity to test its ships and people against a global public enemy ad infinitum.

Geographer said:

But hey, they means endless fighting and lots of opportunities for navies to get combat experience. A naval commander must make the best of the situation handed to it by the civilian leaders. The PLAN should be thankful it has been handed an opportunity to test its ships and people against a global public enemy ad infinitum.

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Only it's good when you don't have merchants in the area. But if you do have lots of them in the area, in this case, China really does, then it is a huge pain in the ass. Maybe you do get to practice live rounds on those pirates like the colonialists did on bushmen, but does it worth it if you lose a few big cargo ships? The hijacked Saudi supertanker MV Sirius Star, itself worth $150 million and another $100 million of crude under full load (probably close to 150mil at current price). If it was a container ship carrying high tech merchandise from Asia, it could easily worth few hundred million to more than a billion. Then what do you do? If the pirates go mad and sink the ship (actually pretty easy, just open up those water-gates? doors? in the bottom of the hull), then what do you do?

CottageLV said:

This will only fuel further escalation of the problem. Now instead of wanting money, they probably will decapitate few sailors along the way. The more you kill their brothers and comrades, the more sailors they will chop up.

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So it becomes a contest of who can up their game? I'm going to give it to the EU.

CottageLV said:

This will only fuel further escalation of the problem. Now instead of wanting money, they probably will decapitate few sailors along the way. The more you kill their brothers and comrades, the more sailors they will chop up.

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Then we start arming every cargo ships with heavy fire power and putting up bounty on pirate's head.

solarz said:

野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。

Fighting pirates is like fighting weed. You need to fix the underlying cause, or it will simply sprout up again shortly after.

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I want to get rid of pirates not fixing up Africa, kill every pirates on the sea and words will spread. Piracy will go down unless they have infinite supply of human lives.

CottageLV said:

Only it's good when you don't have merchants in the area. But if you do have lots of them in the area, in this case, China really does, then it is a huge pain in the ass. Maybe you do get to practice live rounds on those pirates like the colonialists did on bushmen, but does it worth it if you lose a few big cargo ships? The hijacked Saudi supertanker MV Sirius Star, itself worth $150 million and another $100 million of crude under full load (probably close to 150mil at current price). If it was a container ship carrying high tech merchandise from Asia, it could easily worth few hundred million to more than a billion. Then what do you do? If the pirates go mad and sink the ship (actually pretty easy, just open up those water-gates? doors? in the bottom of the hull), then what do you do?

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We can deny pirates access to sea by putting navies and mines on the Somali coast, sink any boats or man that dare get their bottoms wet. Let's see how they are going to pirate now.

PhageHunter said:

We can deny pirates excess to sea by putting navies and mines on the Somali coast, sink any boats or man that dare get their bottoms wet. Let's see how they are going to pirate now.

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Then you'll see those human-right activists protesting for the Somalis...have you forgotten that Somali fisherman and pirates are essentially 2 sides of the same coin?

The insolvency of the Somali problem means only 2 lasting solution - reduce Somalia to not even a human soul lives there or establish some form of lasting, effective government in there. The first is obviously genocidal and unthinkable; the second is nigh impossible (unless split it to various internationally recognized tribal micro-states or something) and worse, "not profitable"...especially in the current world's politics and economic situation.

International anti-piracy expeditions is just band-aid, everyone knows that but when nobody willing and able to commit any better alternative, what choice do we have?

MwRYum said:

Then you'll see those human-right activists protesting for the Somalis...have you forgotten that Somali fisherman and pirates are essentially 2 sides of the same coin?

The insolvency of the Somali problem means only 2 lasting solution - reduce Somalia to not even a human soil lives there or establish some form of lasting, effective government in there. The first is obviously genocidal and unthinkable; the second is nigh impossible (unless split it to various internationally recognized tribal micro-states or something) and worse, "not profitable"...especially in the current world's politics and economic situation.

International anti-piracy expeditions is just band-aid, everyone knows that but when nobody willing and able to commit any better alternative, what choice do we have?

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No, I didn't forget about the Somalian fishermen, they are not Americans or Chinese, so I don't care about them. Besides, no sane politician will ever adopt my wild proposal.
As now I am cheering for EU's new tactic, I hope the others will follow.

I think China 1st clearly knows she won't flinch when pirates hit the water and getting too close to the convoy; but 2nd she also knows it's a waste of time if she trys to actively engage pretty much the "somali people" (like MwRYum pointed) itself and "make a point" - it will never make a point untill the somali people finds some other way of living.

China really prefers to cut the root or else don't give a damn. Historically, Zheng He's fleet has once eradicate any and every pirate activities of South China Sea, so through, that new pirates dare not to show up even many years after the Ming dynasty has fell apart. - That's depending on sheer overwhelming force, AND A BETTER LIFE STYLE REPLACING THE PIRATE LIFE, bought by China's business. The "don't give a damn" part is also through, too. When China can not bring both the overwhelming force and overwhelming business, she really don't give a damn to "international duty".