Ron Paul on Pirates
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.
Used heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812, letters of marque serve as official warrants from the government, allowing privateers to seize or destroy enemies, their loot and their vessels in exchange for bounty money.
Or we could just mount a 50 cal on boats. Seems that’d work wonders on a rubber raft.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:53 am
He called for something similar after September 11, didn’t he?
April 15th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Peter Leeson’s suggestion for stopping pirates
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2YyYWQ0ZTQwYjQzZTFiZGViMGUzZTZlOWY5ZDgxMTg=
April 15th, 2009 at 10:48 am
We’re way ahead of you, Ronnie.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:14 am
My brother-in-law is a bulk carrier captain in the Persian Gulf and says he won’t work on an armed ship. It’s not about shooting at pirates. It’s about ship board fires and only having 15 people on the crew. See, a destroyer as a full complement of crew and, while the merchant marines are trained to fight fires, if a destroyer catches fire they have the manpower to put it out. If million pounds of grain (which is scary explosive) decides to burn, 15 guys abandon ship. It is hard to express how large some of these ships are, but the Maersk Alabama is 2 times longer than Neyland Stadium. I was blown away when I got to put out on a RORO ship in the Caribbean and the inside, empty, took 5 minutes to walk the length.
That being said, this is a great opportunity for a company (of which I am very critical otherwise) like Xe (nee Blackwater) to make some serious dough.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Markie Marxist sez: “You don’t want the pirates to fail, do you?”
April 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Has Ron Paul ever been taken seriously, by anyone, in government?
In any case, I would try the “poison apple” technique. Attractive targets — slow, rich, seemingly undefended merchant ships — manned by trained military personnel that erupt with Hellfire missiles and heavy-caliber gunfire when approached by pirates.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
“In any case, I would try the “poison apple” technique. Attractive targets — slow, rich, seemingly undefended merchant ships — manned by trained military personnel that erupt with Hellfire missiles and heavy-caliber gunfire when approached by pirates.”
That’s not a new idea. Such ships, known as “Q ships”, were used in both world wars. It was the British using Q ships to sink un-suspecting German Submarines that made the Germans resort to un-restricted submarine warfare in WWI.
Large, fast, heavily armed Q ships were also used as commerce raiders during both world wars as well.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Q ships: The same effect would be the pirates just going balls out on every ship they saw, rather than the current tactic of rarely firing a shot. Still, it would be better than nothing.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
The only solution is to burn the nest.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Or we could try to organize the pirates and then pay what amount to “tolls” per ship to prevent future pirate attacks. – I suspect it would end up being cheaper and result in less loss of life plus have the benefit of the organized pirates working to proactively rid the area of unorganized pirates who might otherwise frustrate their good thing. Who knows, it might even be the start of forming a more stable government in Somalia.
Of course, that could only work off africa where they simply seek ransom, as opposed to in Asia (straights of majorca) where they seek to steal ships and cargo and slave crews.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I’m for doing both– letters of marque and mounting the fifties. Plus baiting them with Q ships. This pirate shit would stop in short order. It’s worked before.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Funny how the press decides to quote Ron Paul today, with all the tax protests that happened today (and today being the traditional libertarian protest day too)
And what do they decide to quote?
Getting beyond what the media chose to spin, how many merchant ships are really registered from the official Somalia government, such that any privateers might be willing to expend some effort on capture and looting?
And hey, without an official Somalia government who the hell needs a permission slip from our government to shoot back?
April 16th, 2009 at 12:17 am
My God, Wrong is wrong. Have we, as Americans forgotten what we are supposed to do to right a wrong?
There was a time when you simply did not mess with America. Yes it is true some countries did not like us, respect was all that was required from them! I would love the opportunity to defend this countries border as a citizen and yes this includes all ships at sea! Pass it, this mark or whatever the hell you call it and watch the young men sign up!!! Including me! still a dam good shot and willing to take my chances!