I'm starting to like France's President.

[Swoop]

I know!  Never thought I'd say anything like that either.

But who knew......Somali pirates take a French vessel and what does Sarkozy do?  He sends in commandoes to take it back again.

Now that's more like it!  There's no way in hell Gordon Brown (British PM if anyone really slow reads this) would, he'd just issue some naff statement about Britain not negotiating with terrorists and let the crew die.  In fact a few years back some British minister made the papers cos a memo got leaked after he'd met with the family of someone kidnapped by some extremist group in which he basically said oh dear, what a shame, can't be arsed to do anything about it.  And nothing got done about that either.


Of course, this does now mean the apocalpyse is coming.  We've got wars and rumours of wars, famine and starvation and now.....a Frenchman with balls.

The end is nigh I tell you!


linky:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6078514.ece

[Bruv119]

 

[Fishu]

See Rule #4

[thrila]

the brits do like their cheese.....

[nipper]

See Rule #4

I find this a touch offensive.

[Sox62]

I found this part offensive.

"Whoever was to blame, the death is likely to stir up emotions in France: the family’s travels from their native Brittany had been followed by many on an internet website. It described their endless difficulties in renovating an old boat on a limited budget.


Whoever to blame.Whatever.How about we blame the pirates?

[Fishu]

I find this a touch offensive.

Boo! Off you go now, before your government has to take action because of this provocation 

[thrila]

Hah! no more brewsters to save your country should we decide to invade, you reindeer eating eskimo you.

[Anaxogoras]

See Rule #4

[ridley1]

What a second here.

The British ran off the continent at Dunkirk because the Germans were whooping ass.  Because they had a new style of fighting war.

The allies (Commanded by french) were expecting another trenchfight. And were wrong.  The allies had superiority in men and material, but were decimated by new tactics. Massive confusion.

But back to the topic.  I believe that these 'pirates' should be blown out of the water.
there's a few old destroyers down at the Philly shipyards, aren't there? Send them out.

[Anaxogoras]

The British ran off the continent at Dunkirk because the Germans were whooping ass.  Because they had a new style of fighting war.

Yes, that is what they think the British should not have done.  Watching the Brits sail home caused a feeling of hopelessness in Paris.

I'm not saying it was the right or wrong choice, I'm just offering someone's perspective for discussion.

Yeah, maybe this should be a different thread...

But back to the topic.  I believe that these 'pirates' should be blown out of the water.
there's a few old destroyers down at the Philly shipyards, aren't there? Send them out.

Fire on sight, no questions asked.  I can't think of any other way to deal with them when they don't have hostages.

[john9001]

well if you kill the pirates without regard for the safety of the hostages the pirates will realize the hostages have no value and stop , and the crews may decide not to sail on unarmed ships.

 Geraldo Rivera took his family and sailboat from Israel to Kenya, he hired a Israeli mercenary to make the trip with him. He was not attacked. The big shipping companies would rather pay the ransom then hire some armed guards.

[bj229r]

Saw this AM-- the pirates currently have some 200 hostages, nearly all of whom are kept at the port facilities awaiting ransom payments. Sad that 4 punks with AK's and a 15 foot boat could take down a 700 foot freighter, but the freighter isn't allowed weapons--hard to say what the motivations of the crew members would be, as it isn't THEIR stuff they would be fighting for, and up to this point, the pirates HAVE been releasing them upon ransom payment.

(I keep hearing the ' Law of the Sea Treaty prevents merchants from even having rifles, but I've never seen where) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

[Die Hard]

The French have always been hard on terrorism, especially in Africa. The GIGN is one of the most brutally efficient anti terror forces in the west. And John, civilian merchant ships are not allowed to be armed with anything bigger than a few small arms; the pirates have gunboats and rocket launchers.

[caldera]

Why doesn't the "mighty" U.N. use peacekeepers (their term for soldiers) to guard ships in the area? Nobody could claim that their sovereignty was violated by foreign forces that way. Everyone obeys maritime laws except the pirates. That would be one way of stopping them.