OT: Pirate control Canadian style

[Robatoy]

From an article in the Toronto Star newspaper: (

)

"Where the United States has crack Navy SEAL snipers and French commandos storm hijacked boats with guns blazing, Canada's contribution to the small NATO anti-piracy force carries a handmade stop sign, written in Somali and affixed to its helicopter's machine gun, to warn legitimate fishermen and make ransom-hungry pirates think twice.

"Before we start killing people, or shooting people, we want to make sure that we've given them an opportunity to stop what they're doing, if they haven't actually done an attack yet," Cmdr. Craig Baines told the Star in one of several interviews from the Gulf of Aden."

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A mole, inside the military department which deals with tactics like this, tells me that they are working feverishly on newer, more powerful signs as the War On Pirates escalates. Under consideration are such explosive new signs as:

STOP! Please reconsider.

STOP, You may not want to do this.

STOP. We'll get mad at you!

and the most powerful of all : NOW you've done it!! (Notice the double- barreled exclamation.)

[Jimbo]

I know this is tongue-in-cheek but the Canadian contribution to this effort has been pretty respectable. The frigate HMCS Winnipeg has been involved in preventing a number of hijacking attempts by pirates and has disarmed a number of pirate ships. The solution to the Somali pirate problem is not shooting and killing pirates but in legitimate law enforcement on the high seas and a restoration of normality to Somalia as a country. After all, both Canada and the US had their hands in screwing up this country a few years back - but we shouldn't mention that, should we?

[cselby]

O

I agree that this is tongue in cheek. Unfortunately there is a shred of truth to the "story". I read an article a while back that a US state wanted to raise the income tax 1 %. The entire state stood up as one, grabbed their guns and said no. The state backed down.

In Canada, when this (always) happens, we grab our pens and fire off a stern note. Let THAT be a lesson to you - so to speak.

Not that long ago, pirates when caught, were hanged reguardless of who they knew or where they were caught. Do not be confused with privateers, who had a license. Perhaps all shipping in that area should pay privateers a fee for every pirate and boat shot up. We could even charge privateers for a license fee. Might be a lot cheaper than military gun ships or paying ransoms.

And yes, both the US and Canada threw a f*ck into Somolia and walked away before normalizing the country.

Just doing my bit for world peace.

P