"Peter Skelton" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 19:30:27 +0000 (UTC), "William Black"
wrote:

The operative word here is CRIMINAL...

You don't go to war against criminals, you arrest them and put them on
trial, and if found guilty you punish them...

I wonder whether the difference between a criminal conspiracy
that gets the law and one that gets war isn't mostly size. Which
rules they get after capture seems to be something of a political
decision.

(Certainly the navy was needed to deal with pirate bases at times
in the past.)

And the militia was called out at Peter's Fields in Manchester, and the US
Army was used against the Bonus Marchers and the modern RN seems to operate
against drug smugglers with some success..

The military is often called out to aid the civil power.

Pirates were hanged at execution dock, but they were tried before a
civilian court.

However arresting them was often a bloody business, it doesn't stop them
being criminals, and, probably more to the point, it didn't stop ship's
captains holding 'Letters of Marque' being treated as prisoners of war.

--
William Black
------------------
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