Originally Posted By DVC_dad DAR, are you saying that had it been Bush in Obama's shoes, this is what the media would be saying?
Originally Posted By DAR No just a former sports anchor for ESPN who now resides on a station that uses a peacock as it's symbol.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Until this incident, the pirates in the area had been shockingly successful. As SG points out, the area is huge, and an effective solution not as easy as one would hope. I think the trend (already started, perhaps soon to accelerate) is to "shrink" the area by assigning ships to very narrow shipping lanes, thus allowing them to be escorted more easily. In other words, funnel as much traffic as possible into smaller, more easily monitored or escorted lanes. It makes sense, though I have no idea about the difficulty of logistics of funneling that many ships from dozens of different countries and companies, or if the area would still be large enough for pirates to operate. It sounds like it might at least improve things, though.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<What about the equivalent of "air marshals" assigned to ships at random?>> Indeed. A platoon of Marines (or even good old fashioned mercenaries) would be much cheaper to deploy. After a few pirating raids got creamed they would think twice about raiding a ship.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << Indeed. A platoon of Marines (or even good old fashioned mercenaries) would be much cheaper to deploy. >> All the Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are none to spare. You'll have to look somewhere else. And just for context on the personnel cost here -- adding a platoon of anything would double the crew sizes on these vessels.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <<I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I don't so much care when idiots like this get shot.> Yeah, just so long as they're not held indefinitely in cell in a foreign country, deprived of lawyers, and subjected to harsh interogation. Cause that would be cruel. If killing terrorists creates more terrorists, doesn't killing pirates create more pirates?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan That's not how pirates are created. You see, when a mommy pirate and a daddy pirate love each other very, very much...
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Well according to Yahoo news, the pirates are working on their revenge. "Somali pirates hijack 4 ships, take 60 hostages". Looks like none of them are American or French, which are the 2 nationalities they specifically would like to target, but it's a start.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << Looks like none of them are American or French, which are the 2 nationalities they specifically would like to target >> Considering the dearth of shipping under the U.S. or French flag, they will have a hard time finding targets.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<If killing terrorists creates more terrorists, doesn't killing pirates create more pirates?>> I don't think it's the same type of situation. As far as I can tell, these pirates are nothing like the religious extremists who become terrorists. Religious extremists are willing to blow themselves up for their cause - the pirates are in it for the money. They don't want to be martyrs, they want to be millionaires.
Originally Posted By mele <<Yeah, just so long as they're not held indefinitely in cell in a foreign country, deprived of lawyers, and subjected to harsh interogation. Cause that would be cruel.>> Yes, I know you don't understand certain concepts, Doug, but thanks for pointing it out for us again.
Originally Posted By DAR <<I don't think it's the same type of situation. As far as I can tell, these pirates are nothing like the religious extremists who become terrorists. Religious extremists are willing to blow themselves up for their cause - the pirates are in it for the money. They don't want to be martyrs, they want to be millionaires.>> Piracy is a form of terrorism, just like religious extremism or eco-terrorism. They may all have different goals, but the means of achieving those goals is pretty much the same.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <I know you don't understand certain concepts, Doug, but thanks for pointing it out for us again.> I'm not the one with comprehension problems.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<Piracy is a form of terrorism, just like religious extremism or eco-terrorism.>> I agree, but my point was that because these pirates are only in it for the money, killing them is less likely to cause more people to become pirates, unlike the situation with religious extremists.
Originally Posted By mele One thing I think conservatives really don't seem to understand...most people, even democrats, have no real problems with real terrorists being punished severely, perhaps even fatally. We just want to make sure the they are guilty of the crimes they are charged with. And we don't believe in torturing people to get information as it might do more harm than good to OURSELVES and our own way of life and the quality of information is poor. While I don't care about one dead terrorist, I wouldn't sit there and allow him to be tortured endlessly. Dead is good enough for me. I refuse to fantasize about another being being tortured because that desire is something ugly to do to MYSELF. Is that really such a hard concept to understand?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>One thing I think conservatives really don't seem to understand<< Some conservatives understand that, but it's easier for them to paint opponents as wanting to be "soft" on terrorists by dismissing and distorting such distinctions.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <Is that really such a hard concept to understand?> No. Is it really so hard to understand that most conservatives feel the same way?
