Quote Originally Posted by jockeys View Post
and the ransom payments wouldn't be passed on to the consumer as well?

as long as we're going to have to indirectly foot the bill for something, i'd rather it be making the world a better place by ridding it of some vile, hostage-taking pirates.
I agree with you - I would rather pay the guards too. But I would think the cost of a few trained men on each of thousands of ships (based on what contractors in Iraq make, with expenses, maybe $100K+ per year each?) is going to be a lot more than the cost of the insurance they're paying now. If it wasn't, I think the shipping companies would have done it already. I don't know the scale involved here -how many ships would have to be manned? I'm happy to have my opinion changed on this one.

Jordan