Politics
Out of context: Reply #6558
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- TheBlueOne0
One last thing on the pirate issue for the day. I think John Robb makes some insightful and probably dead-on commentary on the issue:
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.…
And even I fall pray to the rah-rah US good guys Navy/Marines shoot up them bad guys, rescue the good guy meme. Feels good when you're an American, or even generally a non-pirate person, and the media certainly fuels it, but as Robb reminds us that the whole international use of force stuff is rarely what you think it is. All his points are good, but this one especially so:
"If the company that owned the rescued ship wasn't a US defense contractor, its kidnapping insurance company (likely Lloyds) and its designated crisis representatives (likely Control Risks Group) would have negotiated to pay the pirate's fee to get the hostage back -- as are thousands of kidnappings from Mexico to Colombia to Nigeria to the Gulf of Aden are settled every year. Somali pirates have made tens of millions this way already. Further, in many parts of the world, kidnappers are almost never caught/killed (<5% in Mexico and the same is likely true for Somalia). So, given this backdrop, the Navy's rescue effort was just a sideshow and the industry that made it possible will continue to grow rapidly."
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.…
I try to urge everyone to get beyond how the media and political interest groups frame things left/right, democrat/conservative, etc...it's not even that the truth is "somewhere between them" which is a stupid modern journalistic meme, it's more often the truth is in fact, somewhere else entirely. Of course the danger of going off the beaten path is avoiding the conspiracy theorist loons...
- can't wait for the movieBattleAxe
- don't worry TBO - you are a definite fucking loonbliznutty
- damn straight. It might just be a lunatic you're looking for...TheBlueOne