[bmitch3020]

Considering Saudi Arabia was bypassing the blockade of the Hormuz Strait by piping as much oil as they could to the Red Sea, this is going to cut that off (or significantly increase the insurance costs). Things just keep getting worse in the oil supply chain. It's a shame we didn't focus more on increasing the supply from renewable alternatives.

[lostlogin]

> It's a shame we didn't focus more on increasing the supply from renewable alternatives.

I don’t that was going to happen without a supply crisis. It turns out cost is more motivating than the planet cooking.

[cromka]

My hot take: if there's one thing one could wish US would use their military for, is fixing the piracy in this region once and forever, mostly by forcing Somali to do so.

[acdha]

If that was a military problem, they’d have done it. Unfortunately, it’s a societal problem and you can’t bomb governments into functioning or people out of poverty.

[cromka]

Terrorism is also a societal problem, not a military one. This was never a problem for them.

[acdha]

Terrorism comes in two flavors: you have small groups where a pure assassination strikes can work (e.g. Bin Laden) and larger groups backed by an actual social faction (e.g. the Taliban, Hamas, ISIS), where they don’t.

The Somali pirates fall into the latter territory: desperately poor people with a dysfunctional national government see money floating by daily. You can’t bomb that dynamic out of existence unless you’re willing to commit mass murder or occupy the territory and make a Marshall Plan-level investment in the local society.

[nradov]

Why should this be a US responsibility? Very little of our trade runs past Somalia and Yemen. The ship in this incident is Togolese and they're not even a treaty ally. Our previous attempt at intervention didn't work. Let someone else fix the problem.

[cromka]

It shouldn't be your responsibility, just like several dozens of other interventions shouldn't. Yet here we are. Also, why are you talking about this particular ship when I'm clearly talking about piracy at large in this region?

[nradov]

Ok so then we agree that it's not a US responsibility unless a US flagged ship is involved. Togo can fend for itself.