Comments by "" (@pwillis1589) on "Australia showing ‘weakness’ through failure to send warship to Red Sea" video.

If you don’t want your shipping attacked send it around South Africa. Easy fix. No need to go anywhere near Yemen.
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@buildmotosykletist1987 No our Navy had a warship ready to go perfectly capable of defending itself, however with somewhat limited offensive capabilities. The government made the decision not to deploy it.
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@buildmotosykletist1987 ANZACs have Harpoons missiles which could hit land based targets. They also have RIM 162 missiles SAM, which have an anti missile capability and could certainly take down any drone.
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@grannyannie2948 Global shipping can safely reroute around South Africa. So the issue is really cost. It’s obviously cheaper to risk sending your cargo through the Suez. Shipping companies are clearly not paying for the protection provided by a multinational task group. So Australia now gets cheaper goods at no cost. That’s a win for us.
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@grannyannie2948 As explained you can completely avoid any danger by rerouting your shipping around South Africa.
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@grannyannie2948 Merry Xmas to you to. We rarely see eye to eye but it's nice to remain civil. I would also point out we had a warship based in the Middle East for 20 years and was only withdrawn in 2020 by the Morrison government when Dutton was defence minister. So there short sightedness shouldn't be blamed on the current government. The multi national fleet being assembled to deal with the Houthis will be equipped with enough Tomahawk missiles to send the Houthis back to the Stone age.
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@grannyannie2948 In essence I agree with you, but in the meantime going down the Atlantic and across the Southern Indian Ocean is apart from the extra distance, and associated cost completely piracy safe.
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@grannyannie2948 global trade can go ahead completely safely by going around South Africa. There would be some added transport costs of course, but the upside is no disruptions whatsoever.
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Are you arguing that defending international shipping lanes should be a purely financial decision. How much in your opinion is the life of a merchant seaman worth?
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@buildmotosykletist1987 Somebody didn’t like my reply so it was deleted. Suffice to say in the short term re-routing shipping around South Africa ensures their safety, but as you point out will increase transportation costs. In the meantime US carrier aircraft strikes and Tomahawk missile strikes will cease any Houthi activity. Our warships could not have contributed to that other than provide some SAM support.
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@petermclaren2665 Yes I agree there would be an added cost, however the benefits are, the ensured safety of all shipping and reduced need to provide defence of any such shipping. In the meantime the Houthi drone infrastructure is about to be visited by a shitload of tomahawk missiles.
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