Monday, October 21, 2013

Do as We Say and Not as We Do?

Privatized military forces aren't out of control if they submit to being arrested, as India just did.

A US-based company that provides security against piracy in the Indian Ocean had one of its ships seized by India:

India has charged 33 men aboard an armed ship operated by a U.S. maritime security firm for failing to produce papers authorizing it to carry weapons in Indian waters, police said on Saturday, a move that could trigger diplomatic tensions.

Of course, it's not like sailors in a regular navy can't just submit to arrest by a far worse lot than the Indians will prove to be in this case.

But I can't help but wonder just what the Indian government fears the private security force might do? Blow up a fishing vessel in a spectacular fireball because they think it is a pirate ship? (Captain Phillips would be a way different film if made in Bollywood, eh?)

I suppose this is as good a time as any to flog my first (and thus far only--I really should devote more attention to this project) e-book which covers privatized warfare.