Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Pirates win another victory

I'm not talking baseball.

Often, I am asked if I am scared of pirates when I am out sailing on the ocean. My answer is usually , "No, they just aren't out there."

All except for the Sulu Sea near the Phillipines, some areas near Indonesia and finally, the Horn of Africa. (Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia)

Back from the times of the Crusades 10th through the 19th Centuries, Islamic Pirates controlled the coasts of Africa and much of the Mediterranean. The Muslims felt that any Infidel who traveled near their coasts were subject to raiding, enslavement and worse. All this continued until The United States Government decided enough was enough and stopped paying ransoms and tributes to the Muslims and instead sent in our Navy and Marines to do some raiding of our own.

Soon, an International Maritime agreement concerning Pirates was accepted throughout the civilized (Read: Non-Muslim) world which made Piracy an affront to civilized behavior, and anyone practicing Piracy would face summary execution.

Today, with the proliferation of Lawyers throughout the Western World, the act of Piracy is treated more as a Law and Order kind of threat which is not taken very seriously by International Lawyers.

A victim, unlike modern pirates, has NO rights. After all, who wants to be a victim? Victims don't have representation by do good groups like Amnesty International or any other Human Right groups.

Victims are treated like losers by most lawyers, unless some claim for tort can be made on behalf of a victim by a lawyer. Lawyers are just so dreamy... aren't they?

So the sailors onboard the sailing vessel "Quest" paid the price for the lax international response on International Piracy.

Mustn't violate the pirates' human rights to act as pirates.

Sometimes, we can have special operations guys in place for a week while our Lawyers agonize about the lawfare and what rules are being broken by us actually having special operations folks pointing dangerous weapons on these mere children who are play acting like pirates.

Worse, sometimes the special warfare guys can't get the job done without someone getting hurt.

Currently, there are over 700 people being held as hostages by pirates. Frequently, there is a big incentive to take and keep hostages, millions of dollars to be exact. The risk of actually doing jail time or paying any price for piracy is outweighed by the lucrative payoff which the average commercial company will give to get their ship and crew back.

It's only money, right? Besides, the Muslim pirates are only acting as their culture instructs. Ahh, but there is the threat of pirates getting three hots and a cot during any incarceration a pirate may endure, that could be a total buzzkill. Right.

Remember: Any native culture is superior to Western Culture. That's what everyone knows.

Am I afraid of pirates? Yes, only if I happen to be near the Horn of Africa relying on our Governmental Lawyers to keep me safe.

4 comments:

LL said...

Allowing the pirates to live after they'd executed the hostages is an outrage to the citizens of the United States. The ROE's need to change in matters of piracy.

Now they'll end up convicted and living in Club Fed at taxpayer expense...which will be a resort after life as a Somali. Some punishment. We just can't let these pirates escape or the Somalis will be surrendering in droves to become "wards of the State". Neither should we allow any of them to meet Obama's Aunt Zetuni, who lives large on welfare as an illegal alien.

Barco Sin Vela II said...

LL;
In my weak opinion, the main fear of Western Governments are that the pirates will be tried under our own very generous Legal Systems with all the hard earned rights we citizens enjoy. Due to the fog of combat zones/war, there will not be reasonable guarantees that evidence will be properly gathered and presented in trial. Therefore the Terrorist Pirates go free, and then they will apply for asylum as refugees from a violent society.

And then these innocent pirates will be on the welfare rolls... With their families, forever.

A solution is to use the Military Tribunals who are then instructed to swiftly Adjudicate the cases with Death selected as a proper punishment for Piracy.

Two witnesses testifying about the individual pirate's actions on the field, judgement and off to the gallows they go.

But my comments do not help innocent victims and I obviously have no say in these matters.

Thanks for stopping by!

Buck said...

Summary executions is the ONLY answer. The Rooshians and the South Koreans seem to understand this, we do NOT.

Ken n Cheryl said...

Such a tragedy, and to think of the outcome of this for the pirates ... enraging!