Comments:Somali pirates release Greek ship, 19 sailors

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WE should nuke em all!!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.173.123.51 (talk • contribs)

Protection?

Are ships not allowed to carry weaponry/machine guns on their decks or something? Fephisto (talk) 13:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Not sure, but there IS a non-lethal sonic cannon specifically designed to deter pirates they CAN use --199.190.223.190 14:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Neat. Fephisto (talk) 12:41, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Arming cargo and passenger ships with lethal weapons will not deter pirates, instead it will lead to an increasing level of indiscriminate violence against all crew and passengers on every ship. Pirates don't kill everyone now, but give them a reason to and there won't be any survivors. Non-lethal disruptive weapons prevent boarding to begin with, and specialized navy warships are beyond the ability of most pirates to counter even with the modern near frigates some have. India has the right idea sending navy escorts. One warship is enough to stop most pirates and several will stop the rest. The Cold War reduced rates of piracy because the USSR and the US had hundreds of warships out at any one time. Those are the options. 72.146.170.82 03:40, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I think that the best way to deal with piracy in The Gulf of Aden is to either institute a convoy system, which would be problematic to orchestrate among the many nationalities and differing flags of convenience that pass through the area; or else to establish some sort of semi-permanent task force attached to the area (as is the case at the moment i believe) comprised of a multi-nation force with the authority to interdict, drive off and even sink (if deemed necessary by the commanding officer concerned) hostile water-traffic. This would, in all probability, solve the short-term problems in the area: shipping being hijacked, crew held prisoner and ransoms being demanded. However, in order to solve the long-term problems and to hopefully reduce the number of instances of piracy in the area, the root causes that make piracy so attractive an option to the locals need to be addressed. Not knowing what they are leaves me unable to comment further, but perhaps the UN could establish a committee dedicated to solving them?

Alternatively, if the necessary assets were dedicated, a combined land-sea purge of the priates could be instigated, although this would not address the root causes of the problem and would probably have the opposite affect of stirring up more hostility towards traffic of the nationality/ies involved in such an action.

~Biggles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.110.125.84 (talk) 14:21, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Auxiliary Cruisers.

If your ship is going to be sailing through some of the more dangerous places in the world (such as upper Indonesia or Somalia) then many of the ships should be armed with a hidden 6in gun plus the crew trained in basic firearms usage and armed with submachine guns. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 139.168.70.97 (talk • contribs)

Decisive Action Must Be Taken

The Gulf of Aden is said to be about 3 times the size of Texas. That is a large area to patrol. This definitely calls for International action if we can find any nation willing among our gutless allies. A Naval blockade should be mounted of those ports where these Pirate Ships are home-ported and after intelligence verifys the identity of the mother ships, naval warships should confront them and either board and search them or engage and sink them. Navy LPH's and Frigates would work well for this utilizing Attack Helicopters and remote-controlled drones.

These pitates will respond to nothing short of a swift and decisive response.They are highjacking ships more than 200 miles off the coast and paying ransoms has only emboldened them.

Don S. Phoenix, Arizona