In addition to the hijacking of a guided-missile cruiser, now Somali pirates have hijacked a private yacht off the coast of eastern Arfrica. WTF is going on over there?
I stand corrected, it was not a missle guided ship, it's a US ship...but jsut the same...this is insane.
Anonymous
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Piracy has always existed. It has been a problem off the coasts of Africa and south Asia for years.
US guided missile cruisers are very heavily armed, have plenty of armed troops, and move very fast. They are not going to be captured by a bunch of thieves in some motorboats.
What is insane has been the world's response to these thieves which is to pay them off without thought of retaliation. Hopefully the US will make an example out of these people.
Sophist
What guided missile cruiser? They haven't touched any! Those are MILITARY ships. That's cause for war! There is a guided missile cruiser on station at the scene to blow out of the water any mother ship that tries to slip in and get the lifeboat.
As far as the pirates are concerned, they are essentially bandits trying to make a living off of hijacking ships off the shipping lanes. Similar to carjackers. Unlike the pirates of old, they don't want to hurt anybody. They know that would bring the wrath of the nations down upon them.
The way it is, we are probably going to have to do something about them in the way of getting them some aid and establishing a viable government. The Saudis would do nicely in this regard if we could talk them into getting off their money grubbing butts to do it. At the very least, the Arab League should make an effort.
2tweets
The Pirates made 100 million $$$$$$$$$$$ in the last year. People pay the ransoms, the Channel 4 Mil.WI station has been doing "Pirate Updates" for quite sometime now as in mos. But this is the 1st American ship that has been involved. That is why now Everybody is hearing about the Pirates of Somalia. I hope it ends well for the family. They the pirates should have just let the Captain swim to the Bainbridge and headed home.
Jeff of the 140 IQ ;-)
Pirates have been around since the first trading ships left their ports thousands of years ago. The reason you don't hear much about them these days is that their targets are usually smaller vessels. Besides, it is just not as exciting as a terrorist bomb or some jerk killing his wife and unborn child now, is it. It's all about the media.
I Give Answers
As my soc teacher LOVES to say History repeats itself. She said how gold was stolen by pirates so they surrounded the boats with war ships and how they do that today with oil tankers.