The Pirate Situation, Captain Richard Phillips, The Obama Administration

[BoomBoom]

The captain of the Alabama, Richard Phillips, and American taken hostage off the coast of Somalia by 4 pirates in a 40 ft. lifeboat, made a brave attempt to escape and swim too a US Navy vessel a couple hundred yards away. Around midnight, he jumped in the ocean and started swimming toward the vessel. Moments later, a few shots were fired by the pirates, one jumped in after hm and he was brought back into the pirates boat. Heres my question: Why did the Navy ship not fire on the pirate boat the second the Captain Phillips jumped off the boat? Why were there no snipers with nightvision that attempted to take out the pirate who went after him. The answer is because President Obama wanted no loss of life. Does he value the life of these thugs more than the life of one of our own? The US military has the resources to have not allowed the situation to get to this point but because of some cronies in Washington are so worried about keeping international "peace", this hero didnt have the proper backing of the his government. We let him down. I pray he is released. The US had to send a message that we are not to be f@cked with and we failed to do so. 4 thugs on a small boat are up against the US military and are dictating the situation. That, Mr. Obama, is what damages how the world looks at us, and how other pirates and terrorists see us.

[Spicoli]

I'm still yearning for some payback from 93'.They really have to nip this in the bud and understand that precedences are being set for every hour this continues.Sorry,I just dont have a lot of mercy for these f!!!!krs commandeering and taking citizens hostage on a ship flying national colors...be it the U.S,Germany,England etc.One things for absolute certainy....they can not pay them a dime and they most assuredly can not allow them to take Phillips back onto land.

I cannot lay this at the feet of the President really,Dont know all of the details and what he knows.Its going to take some coordination and planning to get this resolved with the Hostage intact.I think the Destroyer will play a roll in that,but not with the firepower,more so what it offloads into the water on a moonless night maybe in conjunction with some single sighted scope delivery.They really have to get this shit under control and fast.And get some damn escorts on the ships on a regular basis.You have to be realistic and these 'Pirates' have clearly chosen to elevate the circumstances and aggression on all in the area.Lets not deprive them of a response.

[VictorCharlie]

My understanding is that SOCOM has had these guys pegged and been waiting for a green light to hit them where they sleep for some time. But yeah I too was wondering why they didn't attack the boat once he dove in.

[El Kabong]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRrXrGg292w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_c3B5AasI


How very brave this administration is, surely Bin Laden wouldn't mess with us now after this showing of force and decision making

And yet Democrats still wonder "Why do we get accused of being soft on National Defense?"....I'm sure Obama is going to appologize to the Somali pirates and everything will be ok after that, maybe they just want a photo-op with Barry, I mean the guy is a bona fide celebrity. Fucking ridiculous....but hey at least we look good to the rest of the world

[BoomBoom]

Spicoli, the president is the commander in chief, yes we can lay it at his feet. He should have to answer on his failure to use military force when an oppotunity presented itself. He should have never put out a statement that he wanted the situation resolved with no loss of life. That tells me that he equates a Somali pirates life with an American heros.

The damage has already been done reguardless of the outcome as far as America showing weakness. The second the captain jumped, im sure he thought he would have reinforcement from his fellow countrymen. They should have unloaded on that boat. They should have lit it up. Pirates were never brave enough to even attempt hijacking a US ship, that is until our peacemaker, no violence president took office. I cant help but think that if it was Bush who was still in office it wouldnt have happened, and if it did those pirates would be at the bottom of the ocean right now. Its scary to think how a large scale terrorist attack would be dealt with by this administration of cowards.

[El Kabong]

While I do agree with the majority of your post, I do not agree with what you said about the Pirates not being brave enough to take one of our ships....I think those guys just pick and chose which ships they are going to take regardless of what country they are from.

I doubt very seriously that the Bush Administration as inept as people thought/think they were would have taken this long to act. That Captain is a hero, no doubt...and he needs to be brought home safely.

The French Navy just made a rescue of some French hostages that were being held by Somali Pirates and they lost only 1 hostage....but they did capture 3 pirates, who need to be hanged of course.

[BoomBoom]

I agree with you Lyle that it needs to hanled very carefully, cause we dont want it to end up like the French rescue effort. Your right about that. But, like I said, I really believe we had our chance and completely blew it. Now, the longer this goes on the worse it gets. Not only is the US up against the lifeboat, but were trying to keep other pirate ships from coming to its aid. Not to mention, the other hundreds of hostages from other countries that their fellow pirates can used as collateral. It would not have come to this if it was handled differently.

[El Kabong]

Of course...I think eventually the ships that travel around Somalia and even in the Indian Ocean are going to have to employ armed personnel to insure the safe transport of cargo and passengers.

Obama and his staff have really dropped the ball here...and taking funding away from creating new vehicles for our armed forces might hurt our ability to deal with this issue in the future.

[BoomBoom]

Its scary really, hes weakening our core which has always been our military during a time that our country is most vulnerable. And hes talking about dismantling all the worlds nukes and how the US will be the first to do so. I peaceful world without weapons and wars is a plesant thing to dream about but a scary goal to try to achieve in reality. If history has taught us anything its that the country with the strongest military is the country that thrives.

[El Kabong]

Obama is just confirming all the stereotypes of liberalism.

• Tax and Spend like there is no tomorrow
• Weak on National Defense
• Blame America First
• Demonize the wealthy
• Put all American Citizens into little minority groups so they can't/won't band together against Democrat leadership

Why should America be bothered with how we are thought of around the world Has it ever changed NEWSFLASH Obama, you cannot make everybody happy all the time and trying to do so will destroy our country.

[BoomBoom]

Amen to that. I couldnt have said it better myself

[Spicoli]

Spicoli, the president is the commander in chief, yes we can lay it at his feet. He should have to answer on his failure to use military force when an oppotunity presented itself. He should have never put out a statement that he wanted the situation resolved with no loss of life. That tells me that he equates a Somali pirates life with an American heros.

The damage has already been done reguardless of the outcome as far as America showing weakness. The second the captain jumped, im sure he thought he would have reinforcement from his fellow countrymen. They should have unloaded on that boat. They should have lit it up. Pirates were never brave enough to even attempt hijacking a US ship, that is until our peacemaker, no violence president took office. I cant help but think that if it was Bush who was still in office it wouldnt have happened, and if it did those pirates would be at the bottom of the ocean right now. Its scary to think how a large scale terrorist attack would be dealt with by this administration of cowards.

I hear you Boom but I'm not coming at this from a pro or con dem or republican...they can all get bent as far as I'm concerned.History is littered with Presidents and bureaucrats hampering and impeding the judgment of the boots on the ground and the ones dealing with it in actuality as opposed to politicos behind a desk,mugging for the camera.Clinton,and the congress for that matter when it came to Somalia in 93'.That was a farcical and total disgrace with the U.N playing lead,they should all hang there heads in shame.Bush administration &that mental midget Donald Rumsfield unwilling to take the gloves off in the very early stages in Afghanistan.Jimmy Carter and his stutter stepping with the Embassy hostages in Iran.Reaganand the Marine Barracks in Beirut.Unfortuanatly,poll numbers and public opinion often trump just cause.

Totally agree that these f!!!!kers should be feeding the fish right now but its just not that open and shut about striking when the Hostage jumped into the water.I am not sure about the communications but am sure the Captain did not have a chance to give the Destroyer a warning.We're talking a matter of yards between he and the pirates and a spontaneous attempt done in an instant.Even if its sighted,they could have just as easily blown the hostage to shite with the Phalanx or other systems.We dont need a dead hostage.The Military is so over regulated and hand cuffed,no crew in a hostage situation is on a fire at wiil status with heavy ordinace involved,ecspecially with the world watching.Is it right...hell no,it gets soldiers killed and lets the opposition pull the strings.Again...there is NO way they can let them reach shore,I think this will be done at close quarters,at night and quickly.Hope it all ends well with he and other hostages intact and this raggedy lot of thugs taking a permanent saltwater nap.

Its equally incumbent on all nations effected to ensure proper escorts to avoid some criminals in patched together rafts and AK's from bringing commerce and security to a screethcing halt.

[BoomBoom]

I know what ur saying Spicoli and I can agree with most of it, but The navy ship should have had a scope on the lifeboat every second of every minute, because it should be assumed that a person like the captain would take any opportunity to try and escape. And I assume they were watching it very closely. A rocket might not have been the answer, but snipers could have taken out the pirate who jumped in after him and then they could have put so many holes in that boat till everyone on it would be presumed dead. Navy seals could have been under the boat to assist him too. Im not a military strategist, but there were things that could have been done, I dont blame the military, as I do believe that the were acting on an executive order not to kill. The white house made it clear that their priority was NO loss of life. Thats my problem. Instead, now we are negotiating with terorrists and giving value to these thugs life. The second they decided to hijack an Amerian ship and take a hostage, their lives lost all value whatsoever and keeping them alive should not be of any importance. Captain Phillips is the only life of value on that boat.

[El Kabong]

Its equally incumbent on all nations effected to ensure proper escorts to avoid some criminals in patched together rafts and AK's from bringing commerce and security to a screethcing halt.

It is a bit more complicated than that...they might not be exceptionally wealthy but they have RPGs, machine guns, fast boats, advanced radar systems....you know everything a mercinary can dream of they can afford because they can either pick off shipments of the stuff or they can buy it at relatively low prices.

It is hard for the bigger ships to out manuver the smaller faster ships....pirates waaay back in the day used dugouts and had rowers and guys with muskets and they would take over big ships, nothing has really changed here. If the navies of Europe and America had smaller vessles equiped like the old PT boats patrolling these trading lanes then the pirates would be overmatched

[El Kabong]

This is almost what we need.....maybe a little bit bigger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caYjQDmplKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Bctymq4bE