When are Americans going to learn how to behave in foreign countries?

[BeautifulBurnout]

The last I heard, Egypt was an ally. (In fact, the last I heard, we were extraordinarily rendering prisoners to Egypt, but that's another story.)

So what on earth gives this great big container ship the right to shoot up a hawker's boat in the Suez canal?

I despair.

[Sean]

While it's obvious that this is a situation that warrants investigating, and that it is absolutely tragic, I think it's too early to jump straight to the "awful Americans" conclusion. The last paragraph of the link you provided sums up the most likely cause for why they opened fire after the approaching boat supposedly ignored orders to stop...

It is not clear why those on board the Global Patriot opened fire, although al-Qaeda militants have in the past used small motorboats to attack US military and other foreign vessels in waters off the coast of Yemen, our correspondent adds.

I'll wait to see what details are released in the coming days before drawing any solid conclusions myself.

[m.g.]

al-Qaeda militants on small motorboats? (in a place where "some 7.5% of world sea trade passes through" means probably 1000s of small motorboats a day... that makes a lot of suspects...). Erm... and how was called this place supposed to be the other al-Qaeda base already? Irak?

Mmm... Global Patriot... what a cool name for a container ship... didn't know that container ships were armed these days.

&

[chuck]

It had containers full of 'FREEEEEdooooommmm".

And large pallets carrying stockpiles of "Fuck YEAH!"

Silly buggers aside - I'm with Sean on this (shock horror) - lets hear as much of the full story as possible before firebombing our nearest Burger King shall we?

McDonalds you can feel free to ransack at anytime of course - everyone's favourite imperialist icon makes really shite burgers these days.

Pretty ballsy these hawkers - how were they expecting to get their cigarettes and cheap Levis knockoffs up to the railing of these container ships? Catapults? Hand-held rocket launchers? .... oh, I see how we could have a problem of interpreting intent here.

Strictly speaking - they were in international waters were they not??

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by chuck

It had containers full of 'FREEEEEdooooommmm".

And large pallets carrying stockpiles of "Fuck YEAH!"

ROFLMAO

Silly buggers aside - I'm with Sean on this (shock horror) - lets hear as much of the full story as possible before firebombing our nearest Burger King shall we?

McDonalds you can feel free to ransack at anytime of course - everyone's favourite imperialist icon makes really shite burgers these days.

Pretty ballsy these hawkers - how were they expecting to get their cigarettes and cheap Levis knockoffs up to the railing of these container ships? Catapults? Hand-held rocket launchers? .... oh, I see how we could have a problem of interpreting intent here.

Strictly speaking - they were in international waters were they not??

As far as international waters, I guess it depends where exactly they were in the Gulf of Suez, and I don't want to get into the kind of "lines in the water" debate we have every time there is an incident in the Straits of Hormuz. But one thing seems clear - there must be hundreds of these little boats there, plying their wares.

And as for whether or not they were trying to sell cigarettes to this particular container ship, I doubt it very much. They were probably just buzzing about in the area along with others trying to sell stuff and because they didn't immediately obey an order from a ship who has no right to order them to do jack shit, imo - and is a container ship, not a warship, remember - as usual, American Paranoia kicked in and the shoot-first-ask-questions-afterwards reflex was spontaneously engaged before anyone's brain was.

There is more info on the Beeb link now than when I first posted it last night, and the commentator's final mark is just as much speculation as to why this happened as anything else I can say on here. So yeah - let's wait and see how this pans out. Or wait and see how it is all hushed up so the Egyptians don't upset Uncle Sam.

[Jason Roth]

http://usinfo.state.gov/is/internati.../uss_cole.html

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by Jason Roth

http://usinfo.state.gov/is/internati.../uss_cole.html

Yeah, we know. It explains, but it doesn't excuse, imo. Particularly as this was a container ship which, to all intents and purposes, had no military markings on it, but DID have a US Navy crew on board.

Perhaps if it had some kind of military markings, the hawkers would have steered clear. Unless you are suggesting that people need to steer clear of anything with an American flag in case they mistake them for terrorists and shoot them up. In which case, I won't be giving directions to American tourists in London anymore, to be on the safe side...

[Jason Roth]

What part of "its crew apparently fired after the boat failed to heed warnings to stop when asked, the US navy said" don't you understand?

[BrotherLovesDub]

luckily the United States never lies about the sequence of events or what actually provoked the incident. nope, the USA can be counted on to tell the truth about the incident even if it makes them look bad.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Well it would help if the US Navy and the US Embassy in Cairo could sing from the same hymn sheet for a start.

According to KansasCity.com:

"The boats were hailed and warned by a native Arabic speaker using a bullhorn to warn them to turn away. A warning flare was then fired," said a statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo. "One small boat continued to approach the ship and received two sets of warning shots 20-30 yards in front of the bow."

Same in the International Herald Tribune, although this morning they were giving the same story as the BBC website (which I will copy and paste in case that metamorphoses into something else too):

A US naval spokeswoman, Cdr Lydia Robertson, said that the Global Patriot had warned the small boats to turn away "via bridge-to-bridge radio and a series of warning steps".

So people are already scurrying for cover on this one. IMO, they must have realised that a little hawker's boat on the Suez Canal is highly unlikely to have a bridge, much less a radio.

Like I said earlier - let's see how this pans out.