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132 comments on DrumBeat: November 17, 2008
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132 comments on DrumBeat: November 17, 2008
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indeolie -
I see your point. However, I seriously doubt if a little small arms fire and a couple of RPGs are going to set off a super tanker. I also wonder how much it costs to keep a US Navy ship actively on station for months at a time. I guess it's really a matter of whose pocket the money is coming out of, and I can understand why the shippers would want someone else to take the responsibility (and absorb the cost) of protecting their ships.
The question is: how long are these shippers going to let the bullies take their lunch money? If rock stars, celebrities, and Brinks trucks can have armed body guards, why not super tankers? If the proper armament is provided, a small craft wouldn't be able to even get within firing range of a super tanker. (At least give the crew some cutlasses to repel boarders.)
I seriously doubt you have any idea what it would take to set one off.
Depends on if it has finished product. If it did, it could be set off with just a few set placements of small arms ammunition. An RPG would be sooooo easy.
Even with just Crude on board, it could be a mess in only a few minutes. Just gotta know where o put it.
Ever see the end of the movie 'Syriana'?
Ka-BOOM!
But that was a LNG tanker. They make for a very big bang :)
Yeah, but I can't imagine that a tanker full of refined products would fare much better :(
Even in an empty tanker, I would imagine that the fumes remaining would make a pretty spectacular bang.
For the maximum impact though, perhaps a partially empty tanker would be the easiest to explode - plenty of fumes to set things off.
Ah, why worry? USA's taxpayers will foot the security bill for the crude highway, always have.
The USS Cole proves otherwise.
A warship coming to dock in peace is a different beast than one in a defensive posture.
Right now the pirates are bloodsucking ticks: irritating and noxious but tolerable in small numbers. It is only a matter of time before the pirates overplay their gambit and the local populace suffers the result. Fumigation will kill the ladybugs along with the ticks, to stretch the analogy.
I think they chose poorly when they took the Russian arms ship. Eventually a situation will escalate and the pirates' den will be cleared, and perhaps much of the Somalia coast with it. It will probably not be the US though -- we'd just do an escort service instead.