Letters of Marquee

MacCaulay

Banned
There was a book put out in the 90s called Balance of Power that I actually thought was one of the best written technothrillers I've ever read.

The basic plot is that several crewmen are taken hostage on a US flagged ship and put on an island in Indonesia by the pirates. The president (a sort-of Bill Clinton) is in favour of working behind the scenes and allowing the Indonesians to launch the rescue mission. But an opportunistic Speaker of the House with his eye on the White House (read: Newt Gingrich) wants to have US forces do it.

So basically the story revolves around how the Speaker more-or-less gets his legal attache to wrangle the legal machinery to let Congress (which is controlled by his Party) issue a letter of marque to a carrier group with the stated mission to go on the rescue mission, basically bypassing the Executive Branch.

It's a very interesting idea.
 
Technologically speaking and with the rise of cyberwarfare, could 'letters of marque' for digital applications make sense? Allowing private citizens who loot the accounts of citizens from the enemy nation to legally keep their gains?
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Well, let's check.

Price of bounty on Osama Bin Laden's head: $A
Price of war in Afghanistan: $B

Which is greater?

And even with $25,000,000 dollars sitting out there, Bin Laden nad several others are still out there.

Warfare is not a private enterprise. If you want to live in Hell, let the Blackwater's of the world take over things like Somali pirate operations. Life will rapidly become fascinating.
 
And even with $25,000,000 dollars sitting out there, Bin Laden nad several others are still out there.

Warfare is not a private enterprise. If you want to live in Hell, let the Blackwater's of the world take over things like Somali pirate operations. Life will rapidly become fascinating.

And we haven't had to pay the bounty. Cost: 0. Result: 0.
We're pulling out of Iraq. Cost: huge. Result in a few years: 0.
We're preparing to pull out of Afghanistan. Cost: huge. Result in a few years: 0.
Explain to me how issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal would have us in a worse situation today?
 
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