Open Season declared on US Navy

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Do you wish to abolish the rule of law?
Summary execution for all suspected criminals.

Yes, Tribesman, my sole desire is to abolish the rule of law by substituting private firms for the US navy, as the rule of law is incompatible with private firms. That's because I think expatriate private firms aren't governed by both foreign and domestic law, because I'm an idiot. Give me at least a little credit, would you?

For the record, I do favor the abolishment of the rule of stupid laws established for protectionist and therefore political reasons.

The OP says that part of the issue here was that a US Navy warship was used to obliterate a skiff, which in itself raises the question of whether or not excessive force was used against civilians, since they wouldn't be technically classified as "pirates" by US law.

Of course, they were pirates and they did, stupidly, attempt to raid a warship. For a private contractor safeguarding a merchant ship with proper permissions from the nationalities concerned, this isn't a legal problem; it's just a matter of self-defense. But when the a US Navy man-of-war blows the crap out of a tiny boat that is incapable of doing any harm to it, it becomes a legal issue.

Its always been the job of the Navy.

Delivering the mail and packages used to be the sole job of the post office. Now private companies do it better, faster, and cheaper. So what?

Because private security for most ships would be a legal and logistical nightmare, plus given the relaibilty of many contractors in the field it would also be a finacial disaster for the nations whose flags the ships carry.

It couldn't be any more of a legal nightmare than US import quotas are, and both government and private industry manage to find a way to work that out when people don't intentionally bypass them by smuggling goods.

Relaxing trade quotas in exchange for the operation of private shipping security firms is a wonderful idea, if I do say so myself. We simultaneously create a new vector for some economic growth and undo soem of the ridiculous damage that US trade unions have done to the world market by insisting upon protectionist measures, only to then commit suicide by offering overpriced goods. The concessions we could extract from textile and fiber exporters alone just by allowing them to sell to us would go far beyond what we need to establish security companies, and the length of the agreement need not be more than a decade at most, more than enough time to destroy the industry of piracy.

Furthermore, you underestimate the ability of private firms to negotiate, redefine, and when necessary, circumvent legal barriers that are counterproductive. International industry deals with legalities in one way or the other all the time, and you suddenly suppose that private shipping-security firms are unworkable? That's just lazy thinking.