NATO Is A Toothless Tiger!

The more I pay attention to what's happening in the world the less I understand. Take the matter of Somalian piracy. Ever since the U.S. Navy Seals took out three pirates to rescue an American cargo ship captain, piracy has escalated.

What is it about the fact that piracy is a crime under international law and that every nation in the world has the legal authority to take action, that isn't being understood? It does not matter that the pirates are, in many cases, teenagers, nor that they're doing it for the ransom money, not an act of war. Does that mean we shouldn't arrest any criminal unless their actions are deemed an act of war? Well, shut down our jails and prisons. Every criminal out there has been given a pass.

On the other hand I don't believe for one minute that Somali teenagers are savvy enough, nor wealthy enough, even with their share of the ransoms, to engineer these raids along with the acquisition of arms and boats. Rocket launchers aren't exactly front and center in your local gun store. Even in Somalia I wouldn't think. In other words, there are some heavy weight adults involved in this.

I listen to the explanations of why cracking down is so difficult. They're covering a whole lot of ocean. Well, yeah. So why not follow the advice of those who suggest snugging up the shipping lanes, form convoys and provide armed escorts for those ships? Any ship choosing not to join a convey does so at it's own risk. Pirates who approach a convoy do so at their own risk. What's so difficult about that?

It's a solution Dogwalk would have come up with! Too simplistic no doubt.

Cost? Negligible compared to what it's costing in ransom, grounded ships and crews and lost revenue. There are enough private security agencies like Blackwater to provide the personnel.

The recent episode that was carried out by Canadian forces and NATO ended up in letting the pirates go. Why? The ships were part of NATO's anti-piracy mission.

The Canadians said the pirates cannot be prosecuted under Canadian law because they did not attack Canadian citizens nor were they in Canadian waters. The explanation went on to say when the detention of a person is involved it quits being a NATO issue and becomes a national one.

Is this thinking skewed or what? We're talking about International law here. NATO is an international organization. If it's members become hostage to national law in an an international issue, what's the point of NATO even existing?

Would it make sense for NATO to sit down with it's member nations and sort this out? The numbers, as I write this, include at least 18 ships and 310 crew being held. Who knows what's happening today. I haven't had been parked in front of the television.

I don't know. Why do we have to make everything so difficult? Haven't we yet learned that hand wringing accomplishes nothing?