Still, I did write a reply.

Link

“…oil tankers aren’t seized on the high seas like the pirates seized the Spanish Treasure Ships back in the 17th century.”

No offense, sir, but that’s not the case. Just Google “Malacca Straight” and “piracy” and you’ll see that tanker and cargo ship hijackings are distressingly common in that part of the Pacific. I can also refer you to a book I read last year on this subject; Dangerous Waters is the title.

ULCCs (Ultra Large Crude (or Cargo) Carriers) are frequent targets in various spots in the world, but in the Malacca Straight, the numbers are especially high. I don’t know how often ships were pirated in the 17th Century, so I don’t know if the pace of hijackings today outstrips or is shadowed by that time period, but such acts are happening today. I know your point was that the US Navy is pretty much all that’s keeping peace in most of the high seas, and I agree with that, but even an organization that powerful can’t stop piracy/hijackings/illegal boardings everywhere, and unfortunately, such acts are commonplace in some areas of the world.

Ending comment here to allow thread subject to reassert itself (Boy, am I a hypocrite, or what?! Wasn’t I the one complaining about thread hijacking a month ago? :^} ). Ymarsakar: I’m far from an expert on the subject of piracy, but in order to keep this thread on topic, should you want to continue on this subject, I’ll be happy to communicate somewhere else with you. Your own blog, perhaps? I’m afraid I don’t have one myself.

The coldest-eyed, hardest-hearted realist understands that without ideals around which to rally forces he is dead, and not in the long run…

The lure of the positive-sum over the negative is nature in a nutshell. If it were not, this green earth would be a dead lump of minerals like the rest of the known universe. Try again.

Your philospohy minimizs dissappointment; it does not maximize truth.

If summary executions are more your thing, on the other hand, then you’re right, who needs international law?

It is quite on purpose.

I already answered some of your nihilism charges, Bez, in the dueling post.

I didn’t make a theory up, I was only commenting on the wave forms, the negative flows of history.

“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it…”

Did you forget your attribution? I believe that is a direct quote from Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

Roy

As for ymarsakar’s nihilism, how does one fall without first rising? Your theory omits the mechanisms involved in the latter.

People will indeed play negative-sum games if they’re the only game in town. When positive-sum games are on offer, however, the negative-sum loses its allure.