Why Are Pirates, Pirates? Because They Arrrrrrrrr.....

     NATO's anti-piracy force has found no crew members or pirates on board a Danish cargo ship that Somali pirates hijacked and then abandoned, officials said Friday.

     The MV Leopard was attacked on Wednesday by pirates in two skiffs but since then the ship's owner, Shipcraft shipping company, has lost contact with its crew of six.

     With the attack on the MV Leopard and the hijacking of its crew, Somali pirates currently hold 28 vessels and about 660 sailors and other crew hostage.

     Somali pirates attack vessels because of the multimillion dollar ransoms they are able to get. Piracy thrives because of Somalia's lawlessness and its coastline runs along some of the world's key waterways such as the Gulf of Aden through which an estimated 20,000 ships pass. Many of these also pass through the Arabian Sea.

     Somalia has not had an effective central government for 20 years nor does it have a naval force that can tackle piracy off its coast. The ransoms the pirates get are among the few regular sources of income for small businesses that supply the pirates food and other goods.

     This whole problem began with a few Somalis who made their fortune one way or another and then returned to Somalia to exploit a few dumb kids who don't know any better from the hordes of uneducated, unemployable thugs who crowd every port in that godforsaken country.

     People always want to make it out to seem that it's the poor Africans who suffer at the hands of inhumane scorn from the west which drives them to commit acts like these. It's ridiculousness. These kids are getting money, weapons, boats, satellite phones, GPS equipment, all the tools of the pirate trade from well-to-do Somalians living in the west who most likely made their own fortunes on the blood of their own countrymen.
 
     Former warlords, pimps, murderers, whatever you want to call them, that's who we ought to be looking for as the brains behind these operations. These imps can't communicate with anyone who isn't Somali and they certainly wouldn't be taking orders from them.

     My answer to all this is assign coalition submarines to the area. Seek out the pirates and when discovered, sneak up on them, surface and the first one that fires on the sub is taken out. If this is done on a daily bases, the piracy will stop.

     These ships, merchant or whatever, need to be allowed safe passage. If the Somali pirates take action against ships from all nations, then all nations should take action against the pirates.

     Piracy use to be a capital offense like horse theft. If you were caught, you were hanged. Now we pay ransoms.
  
     One day they will board a ship that has nuclear material (medical or industrial) and it will be enough for them to realize that now they can take the whole world hostage.