US THINK TANK WANTS PIRATES AUTHORIZED BY US TO ROB CHINESE SHIPS

Vince Dhimos answered one of the most lame-brained questions ever asked at Quora.
 
https://www.quora.com/Should-the-US-unleash-the-priveteers-to-fight-Chinas-aggression-at-sea/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 
SHOULD THE US UNLEASH THE PRIVATEERS TO FIGHT CHINA’S AGGRESSION AT SEA?
 
Vince Dhimos, Editor-in-Chief at New Silk Strategies (2016-present)
 
I see you got this idea from the US Naval Institute, a think tank that advises US naval authorities on strategy. It writes at its web page:
 
"Unleash the Privateers!
 
“The threat of privateers to China’s maritime economy could strengthen deterrence and possibly prevent a war.
 
NEW YORK TIMES”
 
“Privateering [high seas piracy], authorized by letters of marque, could offer a low-cost tool to enhance deterrence in peacetime and gain advantage in wartime. It would attack an asymmetric vulnerability of China, which has a much larger merchant fleet than the United States. Indeed, an attack on Chinese global trade would undermine China’s entire economy and threaten the regime’s stability. Finally, despite pervasive myths to the contrary, U.S. privateering is not prohibited by U.S. or international law.”
 
Low cost tool? Enhance deterrence? Prevent a war? Not prohibited by US or international law? The practice of privateering was abolished in Europe in 1856 by the Declaration of Paris, signed by all major European powers, stating that "Privateering is and remains abolished." How could an institute calling itself the US Naval Institute even think of putting forth such a stupid suicidal and patently illegal idea? And how could the “venerable” NYT imagine in its wildest dreams that US-backed piracy could prevent a war and not start one? Yes, this institute is private but it is a think tank feeding the US Navy with strategic ideas. No doubt about it, this institute is dangerous, made up of dreamers totally detached from reality and indoctrinated by their government with racist hatred of all things Chinese. So the US is trading with China under international law but the idiots who run this institute think it is perfectly fine for pirates (that’s what privateers are, you know) to go rob Chinese vessels and steal their merchandise with the tacit acquiescence of the US government! And nothing bad would happen, right? Remember that most of the merchandise the institute proposes to steal from Chinese merchant ships would be already paid for by US companies and individuals. Great idea, right? Holding up the Chinese to steal US-owned merchandise! Psst. Close this institute now!
 
The thing is, in the distant past, privateers were authorized by their government under “letters of marque,” which were literally licenses to steal! And this means that the issuing government was responsible for all damage and loss to the country whose ships were raided. The lame-brains at the US Naval Institute apparently think that “privatising” acts of war would keep the US government free of responsibility. Not on your life.
 
Look, once the Chinese figured out that the US government was tacitly behind this high seas piracy, they would not treat it as an attack by private individuals. They would treat it as an attack by the US armed forces and would deem it an act of war. And China is becoming more and more ready and able to retaliate. Not only that, no international court or agency would side with the US in a case like this.
 
This whole swashbuckling attitude toward countries not receiving US approval can have their property stolen is supported by Trump’s policy to steal Syrian oil. By engaging in practices that are obviously illegal under international law and practice, the US is inching closer and closer to the loss of its power. Eventually, if it continues acting like the cock of the rock around the globe, it will have no allies left to rush to its aid when it inflicts genocide upon itself.
 
So ask yourself: Do I REALLY want to start WW III with a nuclear power?
 
Finally, note that this insane idea underpins China’s growing suspicion that the US is behind the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan. Most Westerners reject this notion, assuming that the idea of deliberately jeopardizing the health of an entire population and ultimately the entire world would be unacceptable even to the warlike US. But the fact that a supposedly respected US think tank would even think of authorizing outright piracy against a nation with which the US is not at war shows that the intellectual resources of the US Establishment are on life support. The complicity of the supposedly left-wing New York Times in the rabid Sinophobic racism displayed by the US Naval Institute also shows that the trade war and China bashing policies of Donald Trump are not a product of strictly right-wing extremism but that extremism is the new normal in the Exceptional Nation. (Remember that Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said Trump "hit the nail on the head" with his trade war policy!).
 
In view of this complicity of both sides of the aisle in this destructive strategy, the entire planet is at risk of chaos and war. There is no way this sick system could be reformed from within. Any meaningful change must come from the outside.

**
 
I received the following comment at an answer I wrote at Quora:
 
https://www.quora.com/Why-would-the-U-S-military-choose-Wuhan-to-spread-the-corona-virus-instead-of-other-cities/all_comments/Vince-Dhimos?__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=7633357324&comment_id=135664006&comment_type=2
 
The theory [that the US military is behind the introduction of COVID-19 in China] is also supported by the facts that:
 
1, The US Department of Health and Human Services had the amazing foresight to gave Texas based Greffex to develop a Coronavirus vaccine back in September 2019:
 
Texas company says it has coronavirus vaccine
 
“The vaccine was developed as the result of an $18.9 million contract that the National Institute of Health’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases gave to Greffex in September 2019 in an effort to fight infectious diseases, the Business Journal reported.”
 
2, The unusually poor performance of the US team due to mass illness of its athletes at the October 2019 Wuhan game:
 
Vince's links:
 
https://ahtribune.com/world/covid-19/3994-us-did-bring-covid-19-to-wuhan.html
“Five of the US troops developed a fever on Oct. 25 and were taken to an infectious-diseases hospital for treatment.”
 
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/covid-19-puts-korean-universities-anti-chinese-crossfire
 
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2020/03/24/wuhan-outbreak-china-demands-an-honest-accounting/
 
3, The (US) National Center for Medical Intelligence warned of a Coronavirus crisis in Wuhan back in late November 2019:
 
Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
 
Which is at least One Full Month before Chinese whistle-blower doctor Li Wenliang initially posted his chat room warning on December 30th, 2019. According to NY Times, at that point the new coronavirus had not yet been identified by Chinese doctors:
 
Chinese Doctor, Silenced After Warning of Outbreak, Dies From Coronavirus
 
Somehow US Intelligence already knew about the crisis BEFORE the very first patient with symptom even checked into any hospital in Wuhan! And these are all information from major US media sources.
 
WAR NEWS
 
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/turkish-backed-libyan-forces-capture-2-cities-west-of-tripoli/?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=push&utm_campaign=push%notificationss&utm_content=varies
 
Turkish-backed Libyan forces capture 2 cities west of Tripoli
 
By News Desk
 -
2020-04-13
 
BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:45 P.M.) – The Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have captured two cities west of Tripoli, today, after launching a powerful offensive in northwestern Libya this morning.
According to the latest reports from this front, the GNA forces, backed by Syrian mercenaries, captured the two cities of Surman and Sabratha after an intense battle with the Libyan National Army (LNA)>
“Our valiant forces have taken control of the cities of Sabratha and Surman,” Colonel Tayyar Muhammad Qanunu, a spokesman for the GNA forces said in a statement released by the media center for the Operation Volcano Anger.
“Our heroic forces took control of a number of Emirati armored vehicles, Grad missile vehicles, 10 tanks and armed vehicles,” he added.
This latest advance by the GNA forces comes after weeks of losing ground to the Libyan National Army around the capital city, Tripoli.