No Airshow here. The grandkids of the gang that dug 'em out of Berlin can still play hardball.
The video shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somalian pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. The Euro Union navy that patrols these waters would not interfere because they feared there could be casualties.... So what are they there for?
All explanations are in Russian with a single exception of when a wounded pirate says something in English and the Russian soldier says, "This is not a fishing boat." All conversations between the commandos are in Russian. If you don't understand Russian, the pictures speak for themselves.
The soldiers first freed their compatriots and the tanker. Then the Russian Navy Commandos moved the pirates back to their own (pirate) ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives, and then they left the ship and exploded it with all the remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it.
The commandos sank the pirate ship along with the pirates and without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. by using the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. In those days they were usually hung.
I would think from now on, Russian ships will not be targets for Somalia pirates.
A tail dragging romp through the swamps of the world
Two words: Brutal Justice!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that story will survive a Snopes test.
ReplyDeleteThe naval community has another story closer to this.
Definitely brutal and the gloating displayed of this excessive punishment is something I'd expect to find on sites like SDA.
ReplyDeleteI hope that Dave is correct about the actual events although casting adrift in international waters with no guidance systems is not a decent thing to do either.
Do we really think we can change things by using such methods. I'm in the middle of reading Kilcullen's "Counterinsurgency" and even an adviser to the US military advocates otherwise. How many future pirates seeking revenge has news of this incident created?
Next time I fear for the crew, why should the pirates keep them alive now? And the escalating cycle of violence will continue.
How many future pirates seeking revenge has news of this incident created?
ReplyDeleteThe nub of the matter is that the Russians don't care what you think or what the poor pirates think, or what their revenge-seeking relatives think.
Their attitude: bring it on. You take our ships, we will hunt you down and kill you. All of you. What part about this do you not understand?
This is something a tribal mind can get around. They might not like it, but they know they started it, they are not the innocents, and so, being the pragmatic sort that they are, they'll go and try other flags instead, or find other things to do.
And as far as the Russians are concerned, from their viewpoint, problem solved.
As I said earlier, no one in authority is buying that very vague video.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. A point. The Russians were in a good position under international law to take those pirates to Moscow and plop them in front of a judge - Russian merchant ship; Russian rescuers - it doesn't get cleaner than that.
There is no existing international agreement which sanctions murder on the high seas. As much as I despise piracy there is no justification for resorting to behaviour which makes a flag state violate their own rule of law. It makes them lower than the pirates they claim to be fighting. And keep in mind, Somali pirates know that killing crews will invite open warfare on themselves. They may be as dumb as a shithouse burglar, but they're not dumb enough to call for their own execution.
Since May NATO has been seriously chuffed with the Russians. If they truly did set a vessel adrift and intentionally killed the perpetrators of a high seas piracy without due process or without further threat, they have done nothing but make the task of shipping protection more difficult and more dangerous.
Unless the Russians are prepared to take over the entire job of protecting merchant shipping around the Horn of Africa, they have no place making opposed boardings more deadly than they already are for those who spend much more time and effort patrolling and interdicting.
I hate fuckin' cowboys. They get other people killed.
Ed
ReplyDeleteuntil the next time. throw in religion and a sense of grievance and the result will be a clusterfuck.
Either you want to solve a problem or you want to act the hero.
As Dave says
I hate fuckin' cowboys. They get other people killed.
"They might not like it, but they know they started it, they are not the innocents"
ReplyDeleteAre you not aware of how humans are able to justify their own actions to themselves? I'm willing to wager more than one pirate sees themselves as a victim of foreign powers, fooling themselves into believing that forcibly taking over a ship looking for a ransom doesn't make them the "bad guys".
It's the same method that other generally decent people can use to feel happy to see alleged criminals be brutally punished without due process. I know I've felt that way in the past.
How human kind can survive, without speaking of its development, if we show mercy to the wrongdoers? Definitely it was a positive performance that leaded us towards morality...
ReplyDelete"As I said earlier, no one in authority is buying that very vague video."
ReplyDeleteLife is simple. Either it's legit, or it's not.
If it's not, if it is bogus, then there's no problem, only disturbed sensibilities.
If it is legitimate video, the point still stands, however much you may dislike it: from a RUSSIAN point of view, a Russian problem has been solved. And if not, it seems they have the truculence to repeat same. Now, to see if the pirates understand this.
from a RUSSIAN point of view, a Russian problem has been solved. And if not, it seems they have the truculence to repeat same. Now, to see if the pirates understand this.
ReplyDeleteClearly, when the Russians exercise great military force, they can't fail to bring the situation to exactly the conclusion that they want. That's why the Iraq war was over in a few weeks with minimal casualties, and the Middle East is now covered in a healthy-sized layer of rose petals and democracy.
This is something a tribal mind can get around.
Ohh, wait, I get what's happening here. This is a wind-up, isn't it? Edsock is actually a satirical user account, and this is actually a sarcastic modernization of Heart of Darkness. Am I right?
I really hope I'm right.