I'd be all for committing more naval vessels there, including ones with armed helicopters. Pirate vessels should simply be fair game.

Any vessels that are captured by Pirates should be watched, and once the pirates are paid off and try to make their escape, put a Harpoon (the missile) into them, or chase them down with a helo.

Eventually, hostages are going to be lost, but sometimes that happens. Much firmer measures need to be taken to end this.

 

Then looks to the UN to fix his problem.

Who said it was up to the US?

NOT MAH PRESIDENT!!!!!eleven!!!!!!1!

Obama went to Europe.  The US didn't go to Europe.  Obama won the Presidential election.  The US didn't win the Presidential election.  Obama has sex with his wife.  The US didn't have sex with his wife.

 

Could be me, but that logic seems a wee bit flawed.

Pot calling kettle black.

C'mon, how could anyone take that seriously?

I have a track record?

Elizabeth: Parlay. I invoke the right of parlay. According to the Code of the brethren, set down by the pirates Morgan and Bartholomew , you have to take me to your Captain.

Pintel: I know the code.
Elizabeth: If an adversary demands parlay you can do them no harm until the parlay is complete.

Ragetti: To blazes with the code.

Pintel: She wants to be taken to the Captain. And she'll go without a fuss. We must honor the Code.

 

Love that movie... 

I thought the pirates were Somali, not American.  /sarcasm

 

Or, I would let merchant ships start carrying illegal firearms BELOW deck until there is a threat.

 

Better yet, I would put out a bunch of fake merchant ships. In reality, they would be full of Marines with guns under their trench coats. Lure them in and open up, forget an international incident. Theyll just disapear.

 

or both

 

How do you know they aren't doing this already

 

Well that's just false - at least under the laws of the US and most of the Commonwealth.

 

It is just as illegal (or legal) to kill a murderer as it is to kill anybody else.  A person's status as a murderer does not change their status as a victim if a crime is committed against them.

 

Now, you are permitted to defend yourself and others, using the appropriate level of force, and I guess you are more likely to encounter a situation where lethal force is justified when dealing with a murderer, but it is the self-defense of the moment that may give you the right to kill, not any prior acts committed by your attacker.

 

For instance, if you just watched a guy execute three people and now he is headed for you, I think we can all safely assume that you are legally permitted to use lethal force, as you are now in reasonable and immediate fear for your life.  But that lethal force is permitted because you are about to get killed, not because your would-be killer just killed three other people.

 

Executions under the laws of the local jurisdiction are, I posit, a different matter, as nobody in this discussion is a dictator or an executioner.  Therefore, for purposes of this discussion, state-sanctioned executions are rather irrelevant - and in any event deal with a subject matter entirely different from the issue at hand.

 

Cops do not carry guns to kill murderers.  They carry guns to defend themselves and others.  Big difference.

 

You are not killing him because he is a murderer - you are killing him because you fear for your life.  That is a massive legal and moral distinction.  The guy's status as a murderer comes into play when determining whether your life is in danger, but in no US state (nor anywhere in Europe or the Commonwealth that I know) can you skip the "my life is in danger" part.

 

Murderers do not have a "shoot me" sign on their back.

 

 

 (and, of course, defense of others is sometimes also grounds for lethal force - particularly for cops)

 

Curses.  My secret is out.  Foiled by those meddling kids.

 

 

good.

 

 

I hate to say it, and I know it is wrong, but I am starting to pull for the pirates.  Because let's face it - pirates are awesome.

 

If only there were a resurgence of ninjas, my life would be complete.

 

 

If you went old-school like that, I would totally help fund the venture.  And I suspect you would have plently of people volunterring to be boarded.

 

You would have to learn to say "AAARRRGH!" convincingly, thought.

 

 

Holy cow - that's some shootin' right thar.

 

Ninjas: 3

Pirates: 0

 

 

I'm glad the captain is safe. But, the action is akin to hitting a bee's nest with a baseball bat...

 

Which can be fun, but also has future consequences.

 

Very true - this will certainly change the way the pirates treat their hostages.  But letting the pirates have their way isn't exactly  a sustainable course of action either.

 

 

Kills the pirates, and anyone they "share" the money with...

 

And teaches people that "blood" money has dire consequences.

 

Everyone knows you should stay away from pirate money... Its cursed.

That is why you use a flame thrower instead of a bat and burn the entire tree down. You then go hunting through the woods, find any other hives and burn those as well. You then hunt down the stragglers and flame them as well as any other bees giving them shelter. You leave a calling card at each location explaining who burnt down the  hive, why and make it very clear that any ofther bees that build a hive there should anticipate the same consequences.

 

 

I smell liberal whining on the horizon...

 

"it takes a village"...