I am no kidnapping expert but.......

[KansasVoter]

If we keep paying these pirates millions of dollars it seems like to me that there is no reason for they to stop doing it.

I understand you need to protect the hostages as much as possible but these pirates have made millions doing this and have had very few people caught or killed.

Seems like someone needs to make an example of these people at some point.

[damonm]

1. My suggestion ...

is here:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8334617

[FreakinDJ]

2. We have the capabilities but will they use their Brains

They are under the direction of some "War-Lord" on the shore as determined by monitoring and tracing the cell phone calls the pirates are making.

But as for the other Hi-jacked ships being used to rescue the stranded pirates - use fighters to disable them by shooting the rudder

Then there are more pirates stranded out in the ocean and surrounded by our military

[Skink]

3. It isn't cost effective to hijack an oil tanker anymore.

The owners would simply wait until the price of oil stabalized. Same with other comodities. So I think these pirates are going to become more brazen and hijack cruise ships.

[Politicalboi]

4. 4 pirates

4 Snipers I don't see the problem.

[mkultra]

7. covered boat.

[Politicalboi]

10. Well then

Never mind.

[AtomicKitten]

5. Third world economies breed this kind of stuff.

Somalia's government has collapsed.

Desperation + Lawlessness = Yarrr!!

[Exilednight]

13. Deregulated Capitalism at work. n/t

[lunatica]

6. What everyone is either forgetting or doesn't give a damn about is

that these pirates to the caveman age where the only way to survive is to prey on everything in sight. But being an African country, well who cares. These pirates didn't suddenly materialize out of a vacuum. The last time the world even paid attention was when Clinton took office and chose to make a point of going after a warlord who was never caught. Instead we got our pride handed to us so we just left to save face. That was 1992 and the country was already in shambles. That was seventeen years ago, and things have only gotten worse. Piracy may be bad, but maybe it wouldn't be happening if the country weren't in the hands of thugs who have more power than anyone else.

It's a miserable rotten tragedy that the thugs calling the shots there are the lowest of opportunistic humanity.

[enuegii]

8. Apparently, the French tried with mixed results...

one hostage killed, four rescued by French military personnel Friday from the yacht http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2009/04/10/un-francais-tue-quatre-autres-sains-et-saufs-apres-la-liberation-d-un-yacht-en-somalie_1179416_3212.html">Tanit seized last week in the Gulf of Aden. (Link is to article in Le Monde; French text)

[leftstreet]

9. Well, at least the Wall Street Banksters didn't take any of us hostage

If we keep paying these pirates millions of dollars it seems like to me that there is no reason for they to stop doing it.

Yeah, really.

[Hippo_Tron]

11. The cost of thriling heroics is higher than the ransom costs

Yes we could deter piracy by sending the US Navy to rescue hostages every time they are taken. But the more you do these rescues, the more high stakes situations you have and the more chance that somebody will die. And once there's a dead hostage or a dead SEAL I don't think there will be the will for more rescue operations which means we're back where we started.

Ransoms are the cost of doing business. They are paid by the shipping companies, not by the government. If they weren't prepared to pay the ransoms then they wouldn't send ships anywhere near Somalia.

This isn't a national security issue and thus there is no reason to do anything that might get people killed.

[dcindian]

12. And we should start the minute the British are made to pay for their deeds in the same waters.

Oh wait...