Somali Pirates Miss the Boat

I am not a Pirate. I like Pirate movies and may have even dressed as one for a Halloween as a kid, but I myself have never knowingly engaged in any acts of piracy. That being said, perhaps I am just wrong in my thinking but the way I see it the Somali Pirates are really missing the boat with their recent "strategy" to target American ships.

According to an Associated Press article by Elizabeth Kennedy, which I found on Yahoo news, one of these so called Pirates stated that they were specifically targeting American ships and were going to take the ships and kill the crews. I have a number of issues with this. First, I didn't know Pirates had spokesmen. I guess they need to stay hip and current just like every other group. Second, the article gives the location of the Pirate, the Somali Port of Harardhere. This just does not sound very Piraty to me, giving out one's location and headquarters. I would think that Pirates would kind of like to keep that sort of information on the down low. Third, the Pirate discloses how they can tell the American ships because they know their flags. As I stated before I am no Pirate, I am also not up on flag flying regulations for ships sailing on the sea, ocean, or through known pirate territory. However, if I were sailing a ship through known Pirate territory I would think it to be much less time consuming and even more cost effective to maybe sport a different flag, call it a ruse if you will, even if just for the short time it took for me to sail through the Pirate infested waters. Perhaps there is some sort of fine for falsely flying a flag, but I would think this to be a small penalty in contrast to being Pirated and perhaps even slaughtered.

Now most of those issues are just personal ones I have. However, I do believe the bigger issue for the Pirates, the one about targeting American ships, should be reevaluated. The same AP news article states that Pirates can get upwards of a million dollars in ransom for a ship that they take. That sounds pretty good so I have no issue with that. It also says that the Pirates took in about 150 million in ransom last year alone, again, not a bad haul for the Pirates. But the now famous attempt to take the Maersk Alabama, a ship with an American crew, ended with no bounty and at least 4 dead Pirates. One million dollar ransom versus four dead Pirates, if I was a Pirate I would opt for door number one. The first major attempt to take a U.S. flag flying ship didn't really turn out so well for the Pirates, and in fact, a second attempt at taking a ship with an American crew, The Liberty Sun, failed yesterday as well. Maybe there is a difference between common sense and Pirate sense but I think if the Pirates just took a step back, or rowed back a few feet, and looked at the situation with a little objectivity, they might indeed want to revise this "Let's attack American ships" plan. After all, there isn't a rule that says they have to attack American ships or even keep their Pirate word about saying they were going to do it so now they have to. Even if there was some kind of Pirate code, to steal from a famous Pirate movie, they are more like guidelines anyway. All I am saying is that if I were a Pirate and there was one country whose ships we tried to Pirate and it always turned out badly, I would avoid trying to plunder those ships.

Please don't misunderstand and think that I am an advocate for Pirates. I do enjoy a good Pirate tale but I do not want to see anyone being massacred on the high seas. I guess a Pirate has to do what a Pirate has to do, but a Pirate doesn't have to try and attack a ship with an American crew, these things just seem to turn out poorly for the Pirates. Perhaps I am just wrong in attempting to apply a little common sense to the timeless tradition of Piracy, maybe it is the Pirates who are pulling the fast one with their blatant airing of intentions. In any case, I hate to see what has been a rather peaceful and some what lucrative occupation such as Piracy turn into a world wide conflict with so much senseless killing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090415/ap_on_re_af/piracy