With all deference and respect to Admiral “Rat” Willard, Commander, US Pacific Command, we’ve got the “been there/done that” t-shirt:
A top U.S. commander Wednesday said piracy in Somalia can only be defeated if the international community helps restore governance in the poor, lawless African country.
That didn’t go so well, last time around, and getting our butts kicked out of Somalia only encouraged Osama bin Laden’s fevered reveries of re-establishing the global caliphate, one airliner at a time.
Adm. Robert Willard, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said navy patrols alone cannot stop the hijacking of ships if pirates’ bases onshore are allowed to operate without interference. The international community is spending millions of dollars a day maintaining a flotilla of warships to protect key shipping lanes off East Africa.
“The organizers, the funders are the central problem … but the international community has been unable to determine how to tackle the problem onshore,” Willard told a regional forum in Malaysia.
Actually, we have. We just don’t remember.
“Unless the international community goes to the root, and not the far end of the problem, it won’t be solved.”
No disagreement there.
And if any western nation, or coalition of western nations, try to restore governance in the poor, lawless African country the screams of “imperialism” and “white man’s burden” will be deafening.
You’d think that someone with four stars on his shoulders would have the sense that God gave a gnat not to says something that he has to know can get jammed down his throat.
No offense, Admiral, but the stats over at Eagle1 say that the recent spate of pirate boat sinkings has caused a downward trend in attemped hijackings.
I was going to say do a little more killing of the pirates “caught in the act”, and that threat alone will become a deterrent to others…
What say we burn down or blow up everything with 2 miles of the Somali coast? Ya know, for the public good. That way there wouldn’t be any people or structures at risk in the event of tsunami making landfall there.
yeah, pipedreaming of Algiers part duex…
Thoughts:
a- Col. Kilgore
b- Lots a choppers
c- First of the First
d- Ride of the Valkyries
e- the smell of napalm in the morning
+1!!
Anyone else notice the lack of coverage from the other weeks Navy take down of that group of pirates, and the change in the ROE? Not even FOX mentioned it…
What about this line of thinking? Perhaps Rat has a bit more to be concerned about in his AOR than piracy, yet a good share of the forces ASSIGNED to PACOM do alot of that Yeoman’s work in counter piracy OPS. I get his point, the idea that the US ought not shoulder the burden(which we’re not if you really look at the numbers) in thwarting piracy. I dont agree necessarily but he’s making a bigger statement about using a garden hose to put out a brush fire! Brush fires can be put out, can they not?
Kinda makes you miss the old 18″ BBs, doesn’t it??
Don’t you men 16″ers, Zipper? Or are you trying to touch-type again?
But, yes, I miss ‘em. Penny-wise and pound foolish part 3,843.
But don’t worry, we’uns gots all them “arsenal” ships we built to replace ‘em, right?
When they had that thing happen aboard USS Iowa, they had to refrain from repairing that gun, because the facilities to do so no longer exist in this country.
I think you’re wrong about that, JTG. The Navy’s main gun/long-bore rifle repair station, Louisville Naval Ordnance Station, still had the capability do do the work at that time, iirc.
I think you’re correct about that, Virgil, with, IIRC, the main concern being the aging projectiles. Much of the existing stockpile, at the time, dated back to pre-Korean War days, and there was a growing concern about stability.
Any old Gunner’s Mates out there with a better recollection?
That said, I wouldn’t worry about repairing #2 turret on Iowa. Given the planning of it, I’d replace #2 with a VLS bank. I’m almost certain there’s enough space below decks to accommodate the fitting of it.
All we have to do is raise the Yamato and Musashi. Shouldn’t be to hard for Byron and his minions.
Ah yes, the Yamato! Refit the guns to use rocket assisted projectiles, modify the bow to include a big laser, add MLRS in several places, add a hanger for UCAVS/F-35′s, and it’s a real Space Battleship Yamato.
Side note – anyone want to take a bet on the naming of the larger DDH18 when she’s commissioned in the JMSDF?
Dang! Did I start this?
I’m sorry about that. There are plenty of nerd sites where one can discuss calculations about armor penetration on BBs which haven’t existed for seventy years or more, and also with all of the head-hurting math. I promise to do that in those places, not here. I humbly beg y’all’s pardon.
I’d like to blame the typing VX, but to be truthful, I have to admit to a brain f@rt. I just recently finished a book about HMS Furious, an English 18″ gunned ship and somehow got that confused with my answer. Yes, our ships were 16″. The only other 18″ gunned ship to be built was the Yamato class, if I remember correctly. My bad.
Blackeagle 603 pretty much beat me to it, but isn’t this where TLAM diplomacy rocks? TLAM always goes to the root, delivers the message, and everybody comes away happy.
Well, maybe not everyone’s happy. But you get my point.
TLAM-N?
Do you by chance have a flamethrower in the shed for dealing with the occasional wasp infestation?
No, but now that you mention it…
Second verse! Same as the first!
We need some UN resolutions.
Like: Operation Provide Relief, followed by Operation Restore Hope, followed by a resolution “permitting all necessary means to create a secure environment”, followed by resolutions to broaden the mission to political reconcilitation, disarmament, and nationbuilding…
And the great thing will be the while forces are on the ground being all nationbuildy…they can not only serve as targets but fund the warlords because every cab they take, every place they stay, and everything they buy for any reason, will go directly into the warlords’ coffers to buy weapons. Because unless something has changed significantly in Somalia, every working citizen and business owner is under control of the warlord mafia. So rather than providing relief, UN forces escalated the violence and provided weapons funding. Those were good times.
I just can’t imagine why you have that bitter tone in your voice, Liz. Surely our Fearless Leader will personally make a flying visit to “organize” ‘em all and bring Michelle along to teach ‘em all how to be self-sufficient and get mucho healthier and happier by growing their own arugula and brussels sprouts.
Yup, traditionally, pirates will sodomize you over a barrel before throwing you overboard. That’s if you are a boy, that is, an xy-type person. If one is of the Dos Equis persuasion, she might be suffered to live a bit longer, while more nasty fun is had with her.
Git A Rope, dammit!
Groundhog Station.
With days aplenty, eh?
Baby…bathwater…all that. Most of us associate Somalia with failed nation-building and rightfully so. But take a look a little further north of Mogadishu and there is hope – absent international intervention – in the examples of Somaliland and Puntland. Details available in Weinstein’s article on Autonomous Recovery here (http://ssrn.com/abstract=1114117).
There’s potentially a way ahead, it just may not involve us.
We are involved in 3 atm, and I always hated odd numbers, so I say lets make it an even 4. What could possibly go wrong?
Somalia…Arc Light.
Just sayin’.
Ah, that one might resurrect certain of the good old days. Arc Light, Linebacker…with their attendant results. Quite the attention-getters, they were.
I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the 2nd Ranger Battalion commander, COL Danny McKnight (http://www.dannymcknight.com/) (he who was in charge of the Rangers in Somalia during Blackhawk Down) and in his opinion one thing would have saved those guys lives – an AC-130E overhead.
I suspect the Secret Service has a permanent “keep them separated” order out for him and Bill Clinton – or else Clinton would be suffering mightily before they were separated. NCA put so many limitations on the Rangers and their support (and then blew their secrecy) that the only surprising thing is that it took as long for them to be tagged as it did.