A Comment I had to Share
Over at Monster Hunter Nation some no-talent stalker harassing Larry Correia, our feared and beloved International Lord of Hate, left this comment:
“I’m curious about the legality of hiring a paramilitary organization to go shoot up Boko Haram. Is that against some international law? ”
I am a lawyer, but this is not my field, so I cannot answer the question authoritatively. I can tell you this: that when the British put their mind to wiping out the slave trade (and it was wiped out during the first half of my lifetime, mind you) they hired privateers to hunt down the slavers.
You heard me. Pirates verses slavers! What a great movie that would make.
Jake replied with this comment:
For the record, the last instance of an actual privateer I’ve heard of was surprisingly recent. Within living memory, in fact: the US War Department commissioned the Goodyear Blimp to patrol coastal waters, on the lookout for German U-Boats during the Second World War. In an age before radar and nuclear submarines, this made sense: long visual range, good radio conditions, extreme loiter times – it was a natural fit. I think they carried a rifle or two, but their biggest weapons were binoculars and radios. Congress drew up a full-on Letter of Marque to make it official.
So, that means that the last time anyone commissioned a privateer, they wound up with an airship hoisting the black flag to hunt Nazis.
Truly, it does not get better than that.