Comments by "" (@johnshepherd8687) on "Armed Merchant Cruisers & Raiders - Bearing Deadly Cargo" video.

Armed merchantman have made something of a comeback near the Horn of Africa in the past decade albeit the armarment tends to be of the M14/M16, M60 or Ma Deuce variaty.
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I understand that young Israeli men liked to take sea adventure cruises.
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@WALTERBROADDUS which is irrelevant to putting naval armed aboard
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@WALTERBROADDUS Antipiracy patrols are a UN and NATO approved multinational operation. There are many avenues for the provisioning of merchant vessels with miltary personal for security.
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@WALTERBROADDUS You asked on what nation's authority and I answered. That the fact we didn't put naval armed guards on merchantment during the worst of it is a failing.
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@WALTERBROADDUS who says it has to be USN or a Panamanian or Liberian flagged ship could not carry a USN armed guard? You are missing the point.
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@WALTERBROADDUS Clearly you don't understand the difference between what can be done under international maritime law and policy. It was deemed cheaper to pay ransom to take care of the problem. It is quite similar to the dilemma faced by the US circa 1800. The Us eventually chose not to pay the ransom. The global community eventually chose a combination of anti-piracy patrols, private security contractors and ransom. There was no reason why a joint UN/NATO punative military operation against the pirate strongholds could not have undertaken.
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Given that the average modern merchant is the size of a battleship you could load it up with a lot of weapons. I was at a conference on piracy and someone brought up arming merchantmen with naval gun crews. This was dismissed as merely leading to an escalation of firepower on the part of the pirates. I couldn't let that one go. I piped up and said escalation was a losing proposition when the armed merchant was the size of an Iowa.
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@EstellammaSS I have heard that excuse but it's BS. Merchantmen can figure out who is a threat and who isn't. Update: That is an upgunned version of what the anti self defense lobby says about concealed carry by ordinary citizens. "Why blood will flow in the streets!!!" Except it never does.
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@EstellammaSS Palestinians point their guns at Israelis all the time and they die. If a Chinese merchantman fired on a Virtnamese, Phiippino or Taiwanese vessel it would be because they were ordered to.
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