Belgian gouverment wants to place soldiers on merchant vessels

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Read this in the paper today, the gouverment is concidering placing trained military personel on Belgian merchant vessels to protect them from somali pirates. But the Socialist parties are against the idea.

I hope they do it, and I hope they kill some pirates that'll show them! All nations should do this really

It's nice to see at least some politicians have balls! I hope they get a mandate to defend the ship as if it was Belgian soil and bloody kill the pirate scum, The Netherlands should do the same, good news of saved ships and dead pirates could also be a nice morale boost and might enhance national pride in these troubled times

[Ahlerich]

well the part where you ramble about national pride is a real turn off but the idea to protect the ships with soldiers on them makes sense. its a shame that we cant deal with pirates in the 21st century because of buraucracy crap

[Markas]

Yeah get those pirates to use their RPGs more readily. Can't see the insurers liking that idea.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Yeah get those pirates to use their RPGs more readily. Can't see the insurers liking that idea.

If the soldiers shoot on sight, and kill the pirates before they can use their rpg's there's no problem

[Markas]

If the soldiers shoot on sight, and kill the pirates before they can use their rpg's there's no problem

'No problem?' All you have to do is miss once at a target travelling at speed through undulating waters and you'll have a holed hull, or worse.

This is an ill-thought out idea I suspect for PR reasons to reassure the public.

[Norge]

'No problem?' All you have to do is miss once at a target travelling at speed through undulating waters and you'll have a holed hull, or worse.

Being shot upon, or seeing armed soldiers on the ship they intended to hijack will of course have no effect on the pirates' enthusiasm. These pirates are in reality drones, knowing no fear.

[Markas]

Being shot upon, or seeing armed soldiers on the ship they intended to hijack will of course have no effect on the pirates' enthusiasm. The pirates are in reality drones, knowing no fear.

Yeah they'll just give up the piracy business and go into landscape gardening. Tch.

[Pickle_mole]

'No problem?' All you have to do is miss once at a target travelling at speed through undulating waters and you'll have a holed hull, or worse.

This is an ill-thought out idea I suspect for PR reasons to reassure the public.

So a soldier with a mounted gun on a large vessel that slowly undulates has no chance against a shoulder mounted rpg standing/crouching in a frigging 12 ft boat undulating like hell?

[Markas]

So i soldier with a mounted gun on a large vessel that slowly undulates has no chance against a shoulder mounted rpg standing/crouching in a frigging 12 ft boat undulating like hell?

Shall we go out and test it? Incidently, we are not talking about one boat or one RPG. Again.

[Justice and Mercy]

I say we leave the choice to ship captains.

EDIT: Who would arm their crews themselves, no soldiers involved.

[Manco]

It's only the francophone socialists and socialist military union who are against it.
The first because they see more merit in reinforcing the existing fleet there and the second because they're worried about loss of life (as the soldiers would be on vessels not equipped for combat and that the pirates might in turn become more violent)

Until now it's still a suggestion that's being given serious consideration, though it's quite the complicated matter dealing with insurers, authority problems, cost effectivenes,..


and the original proposition came from the shipping companies themselves, the minister in question doesn't really need this for PR. He's quite popular and appears in the media more than he'd like at the moment.

[Visna]

the minister in question doesn't really need this for PR. He's quite popular and appears in the media more than he'd like at the moment.

Has he been enjoying himself in a motel room with a 9 year old boy and a donkey?
Because otherwise I can't think of a single reason why a politician wouldn't like to appear in the media.

On topic, although I don't know much about Belgian politics or internal affairs in general, I think it's a bad idea. I can't imagine the cost-effectiveness would be all that great, the insurers and bankers would be even more worried than they are at the moment, it blurs the boundary between merchant vessels and warships, and could lead to unnecessary deaths.

[Markas]

Is there an article someone can link me to?

[Treize]

Can some large nation please send an aircraft carrier and send out fighters for search and destroy missions?

[MathiasOfAthens]

Can some large nation please send an aircraft carrier and send out fighters for search and destroy missions?

How are you going to hit a little speedboat with a fighter jet. I can see recon flights on recon missions for the mother ships but the jets wont do much good when the speedboat is closing on a cargo ship.

I like Belgiums idea.
________
Mercedes-Benz W108 Specifications

[skag]

Can some large nation please send an aircraft carrier and send out fighters for search and destroy missions?

Maybe because cost ofan aircraft carrier's mobilisation is just HUGE
Maybe because you can't send an aircraft carrier alone, and needs escort => price is ULTRA HUGE
Maybe because you simply don't need to

[Ahlerich]

the problem is that the armys, at least the german navy, isnt even allowed to sink the pirates. thats rediculous. its not reported how many millions are paid all the time to ransome ships and crews and its going on for so long already.
well instead we successfully charged the pirate bay - lol

[Treize]

Germany didn't...

We should destroy the piracy by iron fist!
Giving a little bit of money to self declared goverments is not the way...

[Ahlerich]

Germany didn't...

We should destroy the piracy by iron fist!
Giving a little bit of money to self declared goverments is not the way...

well i know that its in sweden. with we i ment the west or europe and it was nothing then a little joke

[Nikitn]

The pirates seem cool to me. Reminds me of the 17th century Caribbean.