Ok so we all know all the publicity the US got when Richard Phillips the commander of a freightliner heading through the passage handed himself over to the Somali pirates to prevent harm to his crew. After a daring effort by the US Navy approved by President Barack Obama Phillips was saved and the pirates were subdued. This I would hope would lead to an increase in security against the actions of piracy since we use the passage to India often.
In case you didn't know, today, Tuesday April 14, 2009 the Somali pirates struck again and captured another ship crew and a 35,000 ton Greek carrier. The crew was thought to be unharmed, but once again an effort to save them must be done because negotiating with the pirates is a dangerous option and most countries do not like to deal with terrorists or in this case pirates. As if this wasn't enough to deal with...
Later today, yes the same day another ship was captured, this time a vessel from Lebanon. Its crew and a 5000 ton Togo ship was captured. This is beginning to become a trend as though it looks. The country of Somalia has been a harbor for terrorism and piracy for years since they have no government. The public has not heard much about these acts until now, but it has been going on for years and millions of dollars have been stolen.
As of now NATO has anti piracy mission called Operation Allied Protector where US ships are planning to patrol the coastline, but little is known about this. Regardless of that, it seems that something needs to be done about this. By no means am I suggesting a war or even a conflict, no no no that would be ludicrous. To me it seems that a simple tightening in security policy would make matters difficult for the pirates.
I know as I'm saying this someone is going to come along and immediately critcize this idea, but if we just had some Navy seals on these ships sailing through these harsh areas, then maybe it would deter these acts of piracy. I know this will not stop it by any means, but it would slow it down and increase the chance of the crew defending themselves against the pirates.
This issue is similar to terrorism, but we cannot take military action against them, in my opinion a simple deterrance would slow the rate of occurence of these actions. It seems all to simple but these will continue to happen until some country shows they are tired of this shit and put an end to it, otherwise it won't stop because it is far too easy for them to make millions at our expense.
Interesting . . . I had read of this . . . what interests me most is the REASONS for such piracy - I think the prevention requires more than a tightening of security. What are these pirates thinking? Why are they stealing? What is most bothersome is that the blue-collar workers on the ships and then the pirates as well (who are poverty stricken and needy) are the ones battling it out against one another - when someone else (likely a bighead in an office somewhere far out of harm's way) is making the decisions and making the big profits from all of these shipments of goods . . . :P
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