Reply #30: Amen to that.

[DURHAM D]

The shipping industry has worked for over 50 years to be beyond the old school notion of "nation based" in order to avoid taxes, regulations, employment rules, etc.

They smugly took themselves off the grid in order to hype their independence. Let them be independent - they can hire their own protection. Don't let them use the U.S. military and our tax dollars now that their old position has become inconvenient. F-them.

Also, someone needs to review the AIG loss runs for the past 5 years to see how much they have paid out in ransom. Perhaps AIG has too many risky policies for merchant vessels on their books and as a taxpayer I don't feel like covering the losses.