Good Guys Beat The Pirates

[Guest MonkeySee]

This is an AP story about the US commando unit retaking a German cargo ship hijacked by nine pirates. It is about time the good guy start winning. I hope to see many more stories like this. It is a long time coming.

 

 

(AP) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

[Rogie]

Sure, it's mighty fine to hear about the good guys winning for once.

 

I don't understand:

 

• why these pirates have got away with it for so long
  
• why it was even allowed to happen in the first place
  
• why cargo ships aren't better protected
  
• why, if cargo ship are so vulnerable, nothing was done about it
  

 

The cost of this mission undertaken by the US Marines must be enormous, financially. It's pathetic if cargo ships owned by rich industrial nations (this one was German) cannot come up with some way of protecting their fleets against a blood-thirsty band of third world pirates.

 

 

So, what'd I do if I was in charge? I'd get together a select band of highly paid mercenaries. When one of my boats enters the stretch of water where the pirates hang out 'my boys' would be helicoptered in to ride shot gun. After killing all the pirates they'd be airlifted off and given a heroes welcome. End of problem (?)

[Guest beachlover]

Why? Money.

 

That's the same reason these ships don't sail even further out to see to be out of range (or more out of range) for the pirates - it would take longer and expend more fuel.

 

All other obstacles aside (e.g. legal issues with carrying weapons) these are competitive commercial operations with a risk/profit approach. They assess the risk and determine the appropriate level of measures (expenditure) appropriate to mitigate it in a commercially-viable way.

 

Helicoptering in highly paid mercenaries in etc. isn't cost effective or practical. Just the fact they're "highly paid" would put off any commercial decision maker... if they were doing this, they would seek the cheapest contractors with an acceptable level of qualifications/competence.

 

Also, the pirates aren't "blood thirsty". They are as much a commercial (though illegitimate) operation taking a risk/reward approach as shipping companies are. Have you heard of any hostages being slaughtered in cold blood? Their only objective is to extract money... they usually don't kill for the sake of it.

 

It's good training for the marines though...

 

And whatever measures the shipping company took, it sounds like it worked out pretty well if not perfectly. Batten down the hatches, get all human lives into a safe "panic room" and wait for the Military to arrive and take care of the mess outside.

 

In essence, with hostages more or less not at risk, the marines had a much simpler/easier job than it has often been with these rescues. If they hadn't had a panic room or hadn't managed to get everyone inside in time, it would have been a much messier situation with hostages etc.

[Rogie]

Hope of a new dawn in Somalia

 

Mogadishu is enjoying its longest period of relative peace since the 1980s, writes Nick Meo in the Somali capital. Is it possible that the country has turned a corner?

 

Somalis now hope that after more than 20 years of bloody anarchy, they may finally be at the beginning of a new dawn, and Western leaders including David Cameron have signalled a major new effort to help them recover.

 

Aid agencies are planning to move in from next-door Kenya, and British officers in uniform have arrived in Mogadishu's fortified airport complex, ready help their new Somali allies with security. The CIA are already there, along with camera-shy private security advisors, and the occasional frontier businessman looking for potential opportunities.

 

. . . streets and cafes that were empty a year ago are now busy, and planes full of Somalis with bulging suitcases are returning daily.

 

Today, locals gather on the city's white sanded-beachfront to swim and play volleyball, the only real danger they face being the sharks who lurk amid the Indian Ocean breakers. Guesthouses are re-opening in antiicipation of an influx of aid workers and businessmen. And while many of Mogadishu's elegant Italianate colonial buildings have been wrecked beyond restoration, the hope is that in a few years' time, the city may once again be restored to its 20th centruy glory days, when it was once of the most attractive ports in East Africa.

 

Whether the new Somalia succeeds or fails may well be decided in the next few weeks as attempts are made to form a proper government. A new constitution is being drawn up and a council of elders will select a new president and prime minister by August.

 

If the international community feels confident enough, millions of dollars in aid will pour in, with Britain leading the way. Spreading security across Somalia is also acknowledged as the only real way to tackle the piracy gangs that continue to operate along its vast coastline. Foreign navies have admitted that catching pirates at sea will only have limited effect as long as they still have safe havens on land.

 

With so many problems, a ruined infrastructure, and a population traumatised by years of war, it is going to be a tall order to turn Somalia into anything like a normal place.

 

"I give it a 70/30 chance of success," said one international consultant. "After so many years of war and chaos it will not be easy.

 

International help is desperately needed, if aid workers and the UN can be persuaded to risk their safety and come in here.

 

http://www.telegraph...ists-ranks.html