OT: Don’t F… with Americans….

[equalizer]

[quote=esmith][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=esmith]Of course, no mention of women and children who starve to death because of Americans’ refusal to pay ransom.[/quote]

esmith: Really? So, in your mind, this is a legitimate business enterprise? Americans should just pay the ransom, right? Because all of those pirates are simply there as family men.

This is worse than moral equivalency; this is moral infantilism. I worked counterinsurgency when I was in the Army and I’ll tell you this: Those SEALs waxing those pirates will send a very clear message and the OP captures it perfectly. In the French: “Pour encourager les autres”.
[/quote]

In my mind, it is an interesting moral conundrum, the kind that Americans don’t get to face in their own country and so it gets easy to write these off to “us vs. them”. Is it legitimate and/or moral to steal from the rich in order to feed your starving wife and children?

Is it legitimate and/or moral that the captain in question makes roughly 200 times as much as an average resident of Somalia?
[/quote]
Have I wasted 3 years here? Have you learned nothing from my derisory posts? I’ll spare you the existential rants about it doesn’t matter. If you want to be torture yourself as a do gooder, then as a business prof liked to say, “Know your target market”. If you are going to duel with the best here, read the following three books before you engage in verbal combat

1)”The Art of War”

2)”How to Argue & Win Every Time”:

3) BLACK’S LAW: A Criminal Lawyer Reveals His Defense Strategies in Four Cliffhanger Cases

Oh, and you might try using a better case, such as Buddhists monks hijacking a boat to steal rice and beans. [or convince Rick Warren to take up your cause since he is a buddy of the President]
In this case, the background stage is very unsympathetic to say the least:

“Among the cargo of the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama was UN food aid destined for Somalia and Uganda.

The vessel was carrying relief supplies for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services. The U.N. agency said its portion of the cargo included nearly 4,100 metric tons of corn-soya blend bound for Somalia and Uganda, and another 990 metric tons of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya. ‘There are starving people in Africa who need this food,” Reinhart said.’ ”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/08/ship.hijacked/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7989474.stm

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Equalizer: Unfortunately, you’re using logic and rational arguments to make your point. In the face of the ruthless propagandizing the left has done, you have no hope.

It is our responsibility to take care of those Somali pirates. It is grossly unfair that the captain of the hijacked ship makes 200x (200 times!) what the average Somali makes. While interventionism is bad (except when undertaken by the Clinton Administration), conferring American largess in the form of “subsidies” (ransom is such an ugly word) is good.

Black is white, and less is more. And, remember: Big Brother loves you!

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Equalizer: Unfortunately, you’re using logic and rational arguments to make your point. In the face of the ruthless propagandizing the left has done, you have no hope.

It is our responsibility to take care of those Somali pirates. It is grossly unfair that the captain of the hijacked ship makes 200x (200 times!) what the average Somali makes. While interventionism is bad (except when undertaken by the Clinton Administration), conferring American largess in the form of “subsidies” (ransom is such an ugly word) is good.

Black is white, and less is more. And, remember: Big Brother loves you!

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Equalizer: Unfortunately, you’re using logic and rational arguments to make your point. In the face of the ruthless propagandizing the left has done, you have no hope.

It is our responsibility to take care of those Somali pirates. It is grossly unfair that the captain of the hijacked ship makes 200x (200 times!) what the average Somali makes. While interventionism is bad (except when undertaken by the Clinton Administration), conferring American largess in the form of “subsidies” (ransom is such an ugly word) is good.

Black is white, and less is more. And, remember: Big Brother loves you!

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Equalizer: Unfortunately, you’re using logic and rational arguments to make your point. In the face of the ruthless propagandizing the left has done, you have no hope.

It is our responsibility to take care of those Somali pirates. It is grossly unfair that the captain of the hijacked ship makes 200x (200 times!) what the average Somali makes. While interventionism is bad (except when undertaken by the Clinton Administration), conferring American largess in the form of “subsidies” (ransom is such an ugly word) is good.

Black is white, and less is more. And, remember: Big Brother loves you!

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Equalizer: Unfortunately, you’re using logic and rational arguments to make your point. In the face of the ruthless propagandizing the left has done, you have no hope.

It is our responsibility to take care of those Somali pirates. It is grossly unfair that the captain of the hijacked ship makes 200x (200 times!) what the average Somali makes. While interventionism is bad (except when undertaken by the Clinton Administration), conferring American largess in the form of “subsidies” (ransom is such an ugly word) is good.

Black is white, and less is more. And, remember: Big Brother loves you!

[NotCranky]

Allan,
You forgot that “right makes might” and “there is only one side to every coin”.

[NotCranky]

Allan,
You forgot that “right makes might” and “there is only one side to every coin”.

[NotCranky]

Allan,
You forgot that “right makes might” and “there is only one side to every coin”.

[NotCranky]

Allan,
You forgot that “right makes might” and “there is only one side to every coin”.

[NotCranky]

Allan,
You forgot that “right makes might” and “there is only one side to every coin”.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Rus: In the immortal words of Bill the Cat: Pffft! Not what I was saying at all.

Someone walks into your house and puts a gun in your face, you have the right to defend yourself.

Before you get all Karen Carpenter on me, realize this: Those Somali pirates were hijacking an aid ship with food for starving Africans. I don’t know how you’d turn that around into an anti-American rant, but feel free.

The notion that they’re out there hijacking ships solely to help their families is laughable, and no more believable than the notion that their land based brethren were hijacking humanitarian aid for the same reason when we intervened in 1993.

Of course, it’s so much more simple to just blame the big, bad old U.S. of A for all the world’s ills, isn’t it? You know we made Kim Jong-il fire that missile, right?

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Rus: In the immortal words of Bill the Cat: Pffft! Not what I was saying at all.

Someone walks into your house and puts a gun in your face, you have the right to defend yourself.

Before you get all Karen Carpenter on me, realize this: Those Somali pirates were hijacking an aid ship with food for starving Africans. I don’t know how you’d turn that around into an anti-American rant, but feel free.

The notion that they’re out there hijacking ships solely to help their families is laughable, and no more believable than the notion that their land based brethren were hijacking humanitarian aid for the same reason when we intervened in 1993.

Of course, it’s so much more simple to just blame the big, bad old U.S. of A for all the world’s ills, isn’t it? You know we made Kim Jong-il fire that missile, right?

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Rus: In the immortal words of Bill the Cat: Pffft! Not what I was saying at all.

Someone walks into your house and puts a gun in your face, you have the right to defend yourself.

Before you get all Karen Carpenter on me, realize this: Those Somali pirates were hijacking an aid ship with food for starving Africans. I don’t know how you’d turn that around into an anti-American rant, but feel free.

The notion that they’re out there hijacking ships solely to help their families is laughable, and no more believable than the notion that their land based brethren were hijacking humanitarian aid for the same reason when we intervened in 1993.

Of course, it’s so much more simple to just blame the big, bad old U.S. of A for all the world’s ills, isn’t it? You know we made Kim Jong-il fire that missile, right?

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Rus: In the immortal words of Bill the Cat: Pffft! Not what I was saying at all.

Someone walks into your house and puts a gun in your face, you have the right to defend yourself.

Before you get all Karen Carpenter on me, realize this: Those Somali pirates were hijacking an aid ship with food for starving Africans. I don’t know how you’d turn that around into an anti-American rant, but feel free.

The notion that they’re out there hijacking ships solely to help their families is laughable, and no more believable than the notion that their land based brethren were hijacking humanitarian aid for the same reason when we intervened in 1993.

Of course, it’s so much more simple to just blame the big, bad old U.S. of A for all the world’s ills, isn’t it? You know we made Kim Jong-il fire that missile, right?

[Author]

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