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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   35673 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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Inspecting containerised shipping at sea seems tricky.

I think it is! And inspecting it might be more of a challenge than simply performing the interception, but I dunno. Maybe there's a Coast Guard type on here who can enlighten us as to the details.

I would say the main challenge is just space. Container shops are very densely packed. You would probably need specialised shipping to lift the containers off the original ship onto the interceptor to inspect them, needing to store multiple containers at a time so you can get to the ones one the bottom.

The second problem is that AFAIK containers are sealed to prevent theft by dockers and crew. In fact, this was one of the reasons for containerising shipping in the first place. Unsealing then may be difficult, and would cause trouble with the original buyers.

I would say that it’s almost certainly better to track the containers to the regional distribution centres where they’re opened, and inspect them there, which is probably what’s already done. Of course, then you aren’t in international waters any more. You could force them to a friendly port but that’s an act of war, or at least of piracy.

I would say that it’s almost certainly better to track the containers to the regional distribution centres where they’re opened, and inspect them there, which is probably what’s already done. Of course, then you aren’t in international waters any more. You could force them to a friendly port but that’s an act of war, or at least of piracy.

Yes, good point. But if (as I suspect) Mexico will be cooperative, then the thing to do would simply be to ramp up port inspections.

Which I do think would be personnel-intensive!

How do you plan on the inspectors actually cooperating with the US, instead of saying they are and taking bribes?

I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the US already has a lot of people in Mexico, so presumably if we're the ones who start to care, suddenly, then part of our strategy might involve directly inserting more oversight law enforcement advisory personnel. At a minimum just putting added political pressure on Mexico will probably produce nonzero results – I seem to recall that we've been able to twist arms down there in the past.

To be clear, I am not pretending that would be a piece of cake. In some ways, just bombing stuff would be simpler and more satisfying. I think on balance RandomRanger is correct that the bulk of US effort should be focused internally (and by that I am including at the border).

For truly out-of-the-box thinking, I have some retarded galaxy-brained ideas involving extraterritorial governance and PMCs, but I'm not sure there's really any genuine need that would justify those sorts of extreme solutions.

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