Mish has a great article covering the free market in defense. He takes apart the idea that any government is in a position to defend the state. Indeed, the US Constitution presumes the state is not very good at protecting people & property, so it provides for private defense: The Congress shall have Power ... To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
A private company, to name one problem, has come up with a solution to the Somali pirates.
We've been here before, so this is nothing new. Private individuals could act as privateers or corsairs and be given letters of marque to attack pirates. They get paid on what they take away from pirates, and what bounty they can earn from steamship lines and insurers. This company would lease these monsters to privateers who, given letters of marque, would go and sort out the pirates. Talk about all-volunteer navy. (A letter of marque is necessary to keep say a French Navy ship attacking the American corsairs and hanging them for piracy as well.)
Now this is not like those welfare queens at Blackwater and Xe, who depend on government handouts to exist. Corsairs are on their own and get paid based on what they take from the pirates they attack.
Defending freighters is a problem. The ships are huge. They have a crew of maybe 12 total. The have weapons aboard, but none of the crew signed up to fight, and are not really trained to do so. If crews commonly fought the pirates, the pirates would simply kill first and there would never be any survivors of a ship take-over.
Here a Chinese sailor decides to take matters into his own hands... yes those are molotov cocktails.
Further, to kill a Somali national, even in self defense, makes the ship subject to impound while the death is investigated. The cargo rots. The ships do post watches when they have to slow down in pirate regions, like the Malacca straights, an turn non-lethal fire hoses on boarding pirates to repel them.
But in most instances the captain turns around and sees a pirate with and AK 47 standing on his bridge. Ship taken.
Pirates tend to work off a mother ship where their loot is stored, and send out a boarding party to take a ship.
There is really no reason we have to put our sailors in harms way, and at such incredible expense, here approaching a suspected pirate mother ship.
Whereas we must pay taxes to support a navy overseas who then capture, process, and then sink the mother ship, privateers would kill the pirates, or take them for ransom, seize the ship and sell it (privateers take title when they take a ship from pirates) all on their own dime. Our sailors are predictable, so they cannot win this fight. Privateers would adapt daily to changes, and cost us nothing.
Privateers can meet the challenge of pirates on the high seas....
This should be in the Seychelles, not in New Hampshire... Saddle up, boys...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
A private company, to name one problem, has come up with a solution to the Somali pirates.
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| Mish website |
We've been here before, so this is nothing new. Private individuals could act as privateers or corsairs and be given letters of marque to attack pirates. They get paid on what they take away from pirates, and what bounty they can earn from steamship lines and insurers. This company would lease these monsters to privateers who, given letters of marque, would go and sort out the pirates. Talk about all-volunteer navy. (A letter of marque is necessary to keep say a French Navy ship attacking the American corsairs and hanging them for piracy as well.)
Now this is not like those welfare queens at Blackwater and Xe, who depend on government handouts to exist. Corsairs are on their own and get paid based on what they take from the pirates they attack.
Defending freighters is a problem. The ships are huge. They have a crew of maybe 12 total. The have weapons aboard, but none of the crew signed up to fight, and are not really trained to do so. If crews commonly fought the pirates, the pirates would simply kill first and there would never be any survivors of a ship take-over.
Here a Chinese sailor decides to take matters into his own hands... yes those are molotov cocktails.
Further, to kill a Somali national, even in self defense, makes the ship subject to impound while the death is investigated. The cargo rots. The ships do post watches when they have to slow down in pirate regions, like the Malacca straights, an turn non-lethal fire hoses on boarding pirates to repel them.
| google images |
But in most instances the captain turns around and sees a pirate with and AK 47 standing on his bridge. Ship taken.
| google images |
Pirates tend to work off a mother ship where their loot is stored, and send out a boarding party to take a ship.
There is really no reason we have to put our sailors in harms way, and at such incredible expense, here approaching a suspected pirate mother ship.
Whereas we must pay taxes to support a navy overseas who then capture, process, and then sink the mother ship, privateers would kill the pirates, or take them for ransom, seize the ship and sell it (privateers take title when they take a ship from pirates) all on their own dime. Our sailors are predictable, so they cannot win this fight. Privateers would adapt daily to changes, and cost us nothing.
Privateers can meet the challenge of pirates on the high seas....
This should be in the Seychelles, not in New Hampshire... Saddle up, boys...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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