Well, that happened. Inconveniently, the shooters were Italian marines:
The shooting deaths of two Indian fishermen mistaken for pirates sparked diplomatic wrangling Wednesday over the arrests of two Italian marines, and some maritime experts are questioning the use of armed guards on merchant ships.
India may try the marines for murder. You'd think the Indians would be a little more understanding considering they had a major "oops" moment in the fight against piracy. Perhaps I missed the news of the trial in Thailand over that incident.
Critics of defending against pirates cite this incident as proving that armed guards are counter-productive (from the initial article):
Maritime organizations are questioning whether the very presence of armed security could actually increase violence on the high seas.
Please. Armed security guards simply increase the levels of violence visibility when an accident happens. The violence is already at a pretty high level.
You can prefer the invisible collateral damage of inaction in the face of pirate attacks, but don't pretend that fighting back is the cause of collateral damage just because that's the only time you hear about it.
Perhaps the Italian marines really screwed up. I don't know. But considering that India allows armed guards on merchant ships and India fights back even at the risk of making mistakes, you'd think they'd have a little more understanding.
Until someone goes ashore in Somalia and kills lots of pirates, we'll be living with this problem.
Actually, this would be quite the opportunity for China to carry out. They'd demonstrate the willingness to act to protect the general good, gain experience with long distance military deployments, gain ground near their oil import sources, make the "Indian Ocean" seem a little less "Indian" in doing what India hasn't done, and demonstrate that the American-led anti-piracy patrol just hasn't been enough.
