Pirates vs. the U.S. Navy

[biggiy05]

TL;DR version:

Somali pirates took over as a U.S. cargo ship carrying relief food for people in Kenya. 20 members of the crew overpowered the pirates and took the ship back. The captain of the ship voluntarily left with the pirates to keep his crew safe.

Now the pirates are in the ocean on a speedboat with the captain. The U.S. navy has a warship nearby and more ships coming to the aid. How stupid can you be? You're sitting in a speedboat and you have a dozen or so ships from one of the most powerful naval forces in the world coming after you. Sheer brilliance.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_af/piracy

[Anthus]

Lol. I wonder how long it'll be before they make a movie out of modern pirates. Actually, I saw this on the new last night. I thought the pirates took over the navel ship, and seized that captain though. At least that is how the news made it sound.

[biggiy05]

Lol. I wonder how long it'll be before they make a movie out of modern pirates. Actually, I saw this on the new last night. I thought the pirates took over the navel ship, and seized that captain though. At least that is how the news made it sound.

They took over the ship then hours later the crew overpowered the pirates. In the mix of all this, the captain voluntarily left with the pirates in exchange for his crews safety. Ballsy move but I can respect him for thinking of his crew first.

[Aegix Drakan]

Wow. I thought this shit didn't happen anymore.

Anyways, if there is a battleship floating near them, and they hav eno juice left in the motor, basically the only bargain they can hope to make is "we'll hand over the hostage! Just don't kill us!". I mean, they're totally boned.

Not a smart move on their part.

Ballsy move but I can respect him for thinking of his crew first.

Agreed. I salute him for that too.

[Fabiano the Spy]

In the mix of all this, the captain voluntarily left with the pirates in exchange for his crews safety. Ballsy move but I can respect him for thinking of his crew first.

Yeah, when this first happened I saw this on the news. When I heard about how he left, I wanted to give a salute to the man, that's bravery, that's honor. It made me proud of him and all, but shit..

But as said above, he's safe now, so that's all good.

[Dechipher]

This shit is bananas.

[Beldaran]

Don't worry, Obama has a plan to shrink the navy and cut military spending more than its ever been cut. We'll be fine.

[rock_nog]

Don't worry, Obama has a plan to shrink the navy and cut military spending more than its ever been cut. We'll be fine.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the proposed 2010 defense budget actually higher than 2009's? I really don't see how an extra $20 billion is cutting military spending here.

[Beldaran]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the proposed 2010 defense budget actually higher than 2009's? I really don't see how an extra $20 billion is cutting military spending here.

He is increasing spending in areas related to counter-insurgency such as unmanned aerial vehicles and such, but cancelling some huge programs like F22 Raptor (leading to big job losses in multiple states), the F35, huge cuts in missile defense (perfect timing with NKorea launching a missile), decomissioning some battleships, and halting new helicopters, next-generation armored vehicles for the Army and high-tech Navy vessels.

Also, when the government prints $1 trillion dollars defacto and pumps it into the economy willy nilly, a $20 billion increase in spending ends up being a spending CUT, because of the value of money.

[Archangel]

That's why we need to legalize laser warfare. High Intensity beams rock.