I don't think they would need to make a port call to embark/disembark. They have the USS Boxer which carries 2000 Marines. Between 25-42 helicopters depending on it's compliment. Just have a choper land on the cargo ship or have the Marines repel down on the ship. The Reagan administration had barges in the Gulf during the Iran situation which acted like staging bases for choppers and special forces. Have the same here in multiple locations.

Also a lack of legitimate opportunities in Somali life, but it is going too be a
very, very long time until Somalia is anywhere near that stable.
More short term solutions are needed right now.

Three shots, all to the head, at 75 feet, in a rocking boat, in the dark...those SEALs know their stuff :salute:

It sounds like they planned to do something like this all along. Why else would you parachute in a SEAL team?

Kudos to President Obama for getting the right guys in the right place, and major kudos to the guys on the ground for being absolutely perfect! Our military has taken a few knocks in the past few years, but events like today prove that when they get to be an actual military like they're supposed to be instead of a glorified police force, they're still the best in the world.

Another country that shows an example on how to treat with pirate scum.:salute:

HunterICX

A fitting end :up:

The wife and daughter came back from Philadelphia and New York today....seemingly this story has been big news over in the States all week.

I believe the US government shouldnt have even acted. They are in Somali waters and merchants and tourists know the risks of traveling through them. The Somalis did not engage a MILITARY or GOVERNMENT target under ORDERS from THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT. They raided a MERCHANT vessal. Its sad that we waste time on people who attack merchants that really have no right to be there in Somali waters when its obvious the Somalis dont want us there. I salute those brave pirates:salute:
Should sent all the americans to davy jones:arrgh!:

That's one of the worst trolls I've ever seen. Show me where the merchant was inside Somali waters and I'll tell you more.

obviously the navy of somalia is something that is nonexsistent, its navy is based off of piracy practically. Wherever these pirates hunting grounds are, are their waters. They live in a tribal society in which is a soceity where whoever you kill, you can take what is theres. I hate how the western world does not understand this. What is considered robbery to us, is life to them. How dare you call them scum. If you grew up in the same place as they, you would be supportive of the pirates.

It makes absolutely no difference even if the ship was within Somali boundaries. Somali has ratified UNCLOS '82, and under the regulations of innocent passage, a merchant ship has every right to enter Somali territorial waters. That's how it is.

Capturing an unarmed merchant ship in international waters and threatening to kill the crew if their government doesn't fork over a few million is hardly what I'd call "heroic." These pirates certainly aren't using the ransom money to buy goods and services for the common Somali. They're just in it for easy money - certainly not what I'd call a bunch of modern-day Robin Hoods!

Well the Boxer has to come back to it's beautiful homeport sometime, Sunny San Diego. So that LHD serving as a Sea Control Shipping, wont always be there, nor will the US always keep one in rotation for CTF-150/151. Furthermore, helicopters only have so much range. Thus the reason why I wanted to have common points of embarkation/debarkation for US Flagged/Crewed vessel which to take on said marines. Also, wouldn't it be nice for a Marine to have recoup time ashore? It's not like the places that I have mentioned, minus Kenya, don't already have a military presence or a SOFA to accommodate.

As for barges, as long as they are international waters, they'd be fine. But you're talking about sea basing, a concept that has been touted since at least the 90s. This project found its way to the cutting or trimming room floor of the FY2010 US defense budget. I think the 11th LPD will find life in Congress due to multiple districts benefiting by said construction, but since Sea-Basing has only been an exercise concept, with only limited trails, I don't think it'll have the same luck.

One of the first obligations of a government, since the times of wood and sail, is to protect and defend its merchant ships. The US has an obligation to defend its flagged/crewed ships from piracy, merchant raiding, and hijacking. So your argument is moot, as already shown by more knowledgeable people on this subject than you. :arrgh!:

No, what's robbery to us is also robbery to them. You make Somalis sound like a bunch of savages who have no sense of right and wrong. That's not true. Their way of life may be different than ours, but that doesn't mean that they're completely devoid of morals.

You're trying to defend the pirates here, but you're even more racist than those who are calling the pirates scum.

LA Times is reporting that the ship was assaulted 240 NM off the port of Eyl, which makes that well beyond Somali territorial waters and Somalia's exclusive economic zone, so this particular attack took place in international waters.

Ah, I see. So you're saying because their society condones anarchy, robbery, and murder, we should let them do it to us?

Real brilliant argument there. :nope:

By the same token, using your own argument, the pirates should understand if we blast them out of the water. After all, our society (by which I mean just about every country that uses the sea) condones the enforcement of freedom of the seas, even if theirs does not. By your argument, no police force in the world has the right to take action against any criminal, because said criminal is operating in a even if it's a just a robber and his cohorts that constitutes said "society".

Plus, even if robbery is a fact of life for the Somalians, I really doubt that they treat it as morally right. Standards may be different, but right and wrong are pretty universal, and by no recognized moral code is outright banditry considered right. Similarly, no moral code describes defending against banditry as wrong.

(I'm aware it's probably a troll poster, but all the same...)