Apr 25, 2009
Pirates and Private Violence
...a brief update
CENTCOM commander David Petraeus told a House committee today that Somalian pirates are active in an area too large to be adequately patrolled by state navies. He suggested instead that private shipping companies supplement state-managed security with their own armed protection.
ADDED LATER: So let's take another look at that Josh Marshall post about Ron Paul from last week:"Actually, Paul manages to say something even stupider -- which is that rather than having a powerful Navy, which keeps the oceans safe and provides a vast support to global commerce, we should leave it to the individual companies and ship owners to keep their shipping safe."
CENTCOM commander David Petraeus told a House committee today that Somalian pirates are active in an area too large to be adequately patrolled by state navies. He suggested instead that private shipping companies supplement state-managed security with their own armed protection.
ADDED LATER: So let's take another look at that Josh Marshall post about Ron Paul from last week:"Actually, Paul manages to say something even stupider -- which is that rather than having a powerful Navy, which keeps the oceans safe and provides a vast support to global commerce, we should leave it to the individual companies and ship owners to keep their shipping safe."