Comments on: Blackwater plans new mission: fighting pirates.

By: marlow

marlow — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:03:44 +0000

I think they’d find the pirates a tougher bunch than they anticipate. These are Somalis,raised from infancy in a setting of street fights and guerrilla combat, absolutely inured to the prospect and spectacle of death. I’d call these people tougher than the average Blackwater bully who seems to prefer shooting into cars full of unsuspecting civilians from their armored transports. They get in little open boats and drive hundreds of miles into blue-water shipping lanes with machine guns and RPG’s ( a hit from an RPG will F-up damn near any boat out there since the New Jersey was retired) One RPG into an oil tanker followed by a demand that Blackwater be removed would finish them.

By: pdennany

pdennany — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:47:55 +0000

Fittingly fighting their own kind.

By: zuch

zuch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:31:00 +0000

“We would be allowed to fire if fired upon; the right of self-defense is one that exists in international waters.”

… and they just luvs them to be able to fire, The BFG3000s are preferred.

That being said, there really is a need to constrain the piracy, although perhaps structural/economic changes might mitigate some of the reasons for the recent popularity of piracy.

The paying of ransoms, FWIW, only encourages such. Hard to tell a company that they should disregard the lives of their employees, but it does a disservice in the long run. But as long as insurance pays the tab, who cares, eh?

Cheers,

By: MapleStreet

MapleStreet — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:20:54 +0000

Around the 17th century, didn’t the European countries hire pirates as mercenaries against the pirates of other countries ?

Where is Errol Flynn ?

By: one more clue

one more clue — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:11:24 +0000

All well and good till they turn an oil tanker into an Exxon Valdiz, or “accidently” sink a cruise ship. Or will they set up shop with their weapons ON the tankers and cruise ships from which they’ll attack the pirates?

By: Chocolate Jesus

Chocolate Jesus — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:24:51 +0000

I dont see a huge problem with this. Unless these idiots start raping people on cruise ships, which is probably unlikely, there arent alot of innocent people for these guys to actually shoot in these situations..I think a hostile pirate ship will be hard to mistake for an innocent ship

By: mary

mary — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:20:07 +0000

I’m with Marlow.

What’s to prevent them from making deals with the pirates or extorting money from people?’

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:01:47 +0000

Actually, this is precisely what mercenary organizations like Blackwater should be doing, if they exist at all.

By: dbadass

dbadass — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:57:43 +0000

This makes me want to go rent Yellowbeard. I love that movie. On second thought could someone get that for me as a christmas gift? Sort of a TP secret Santa type deal…

By: Leftside Annie

Leftside Annie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:52:05 +0000

IMO, Blackwater ought to be declared a terrorist organization — and disbanded.

By: curious

curious — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:19:56 +0000

They should fight pirates. Each group recognizes it’s own.

By: marlow

marlow — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:07:13 +0000

“We would be allowed to fire if fired upon…”
Whiny bastards, in Iraq they got to fire all over the place even if NOT fired upon. Women and children cut in half just for being in the vicinity. Contractors shooting up cars for funsies. It’ll serve Blackwater’s bloodlust well to be able to blow people to shreds on the high seas. Innocent boaters beware…

By: Nevar

Nevar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:04:08 +0000

I dunno, there’s a lot of swabbing and chipping and painting that goes on between skirmishes… ;)

By: deebaser

deebaser — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:00:05 +0000

ummm….i know blackwater are the bad guys and all, but this sounds too eff’n cool.

I wanna fight pirates!

By: Witch1

Witch1 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:46:43 +0000

How very inventave…They helped turn the sand red with Iraq citizen’s blood now they will continue their reign of terror on the sea’s…Both the shark’s and Blackwater will be happy..Where I live we have to pull a lever to empty the blackwater tank into the septic tank..When will America learn how to get rid of this blackwater…..Blessings

By: RUCerious

RUCerious — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:46:32 +0000

How do we know the existing pirates aren’t Blackwater subcontractors right now?? That would make perfect sense.
Create a need, then charge billions to fix it.

By: Nevar

Nevar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:42:53 +0000

In all seriousness, I’ll have to agree with misshusseinmolly in that commercial shipping should take responsibility for its own security, especially if they are operating in hazardous waters.
It is incongruous that a ship loaded with tanks and weapons did not have the wherewithal to protect itself.
If oil tankers were transporting oil that actually belonged to the people from whose domain it came from, I could see providing national armed forces to protect it.
As it is, the oil companies should provide for their own security, and provide their own invasion forces should they decide to invade foreign, sovereign nations for their oil.
The United States allowed oil and weapons industries to march itself into invasion, at the cost of billions of dollars, thousands of lives lost, and many more thousands maimed and scarred. And then had to hire private mercenaries at the cost of hundreds of millions more to protect it’s own personnel.
Kick Blackwater out to sea, where Erik Prince can wander the high seas with a load of Amway products, fly his own skull and crossbones, and be forbidden to ever set foot on land again.

By: the brown acid

the brown acid — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:40:48 +0000

rastaman Says:

CORPORATIONS WAGING WAR AGAINST CORPORATIONS.

Beared repeating. Keep it irie.

By: rastaman

rastaman — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:35:29 +0000

CORPORATIONS WAGING WAR AGAINST CORPORATIONS.

By: Tired Of Fighting

Tired Of Fighting — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:32:16 +0000

“Blackwater, robbing one country at a time”

RIP
SGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq