Reply to "Confused ******* needs help"

I see some good points here and in principle I agree with a zero tolerance stance, however as of yet no one has mentioned the idiots that perpetuate this sort of crime.....those that have paid over millions of dollars in ransom money. Those are the people that have escalated modern piracy because the ransom a) allows the Pirates to better equip themselves and b) validates to all Somali's that it's an easy get rich quick scheme.

Only now that the US, French and Dutch have taken action against hijacked ships/personnel has any sort of retaliation been made, as usual it's too little too late. The piracy isn't new, everyone was prepared to sit back for a time and say it's not my problem, the companies that could afford it paid up ransom money, those that couldn't, well there's still about 300 seamen being held hostage, mostly Filipino's. Did you hear about them on CNN.... No you didn't, until an American flagged ship was boarded.

On the flip side I sympathize that ships which choose to register offshore to avoid taxes shouldn't enjoy the benefits and protection that the tax dollar would buy. But the need to cull these Somali Pirates currently outweighs that argument, however once again it should not be down to the US to do that alone. Where's the f$@&in U.N. when it comes down to the 'Global' fight against piracy, and as a final comment let's stop giving it a cute 1800's swashbuckling moniker, that conjures up images of Johnny Depp, the way it’s practiced in modern day it basically amounts to ‘terrorism’ by another name.

Julian