The pirates have been very clever in not harming any of the sailors on the hijacked ships. This makes it difficult for foreign countries to justify the use of force to take back the ships (not to mention the risk of the rescuers killing some of the hostages). This media/political logic also makes it difficult to authorize attacks on the half dozen Somali port towns and villages that serve as bases for the pirates.The Romans had a solution for this kind of problem. It typically involved lots of swords and fire.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
More on the Tanker Piracy
The Strategy Page has an interesting tidbit on the Somali siezure of the tanker and Somali piracy in general.
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3 comments:
Those wacky Romans.
Didn't we go to war over something just like this.
So the article says that it is difficult to intervene because so far the pirates have avoided killing any hostages. Yet they are clearly escalating the situation. Its only a matter of time before they do kill someone, so what then?
The article also seemed to imply that the tanker was outside the the patrolled zone. I wonder why.
"Hey, we broke in, held your guys at gun point and are stealing your stuff until you buy both it and your people-- but we try not to kill people!"
Check out the Live Piracy Map for 2008.
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