Quote:
Originally Posted by Sly
I find it kind of odd that "officials" and "analysts" are so concerned about "escalating the situation" by adding firearms. Escalating the situation? To what?! I realize that they are afraid the 300 held hostages could be killed... but good lord, how long can this go on without any real repercussions? Something needs to be done aside from everyone standing around saying "oh that sure is unfortunate."
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There are two main reasons why arming the ship's crew isn't a particularly viable solution.
First, there's the issue that under sea laws, ships are generally given the "right of innocent passage" in territorial waters. However, with armed crews, this becomes problematic.
Second, right now, in most cases by far the hostages aren't killed. If they were armed, however, it would make it likely that crew members of hijacked ships would be killed in gun battles, and it would also increase chances of hostages being killed as a precaution by pirates.
The only reasonable solution to this problem is to focus on treating the root causes. Mainly, Somalia needs a functioning government.
Sadly, Somalia's best bet for a functioning government was the (heavily islamist) ICU. And both Ethiopia and the USA have played a large part in preventing them from creating a somewhat functional government. Ethiopia by means of an actual invasion, and the USA by means of the clandestine support of secular warlords.