The Drama Continues
We were going to resist the urge to write a third consecutive Somali pirate article but damn if the drama over in the Gulf of Aden isn’t intensifying.
Not only did the captured American captain try to escape – only to be recaptured, unfortunately – but it seems like a much bigger naval showdown is brewing.
Every pirate skiff in the area is evidently converging on the location of the Maersk Alabama, along with additional U.S. Navy vessels.
From the AP:
Escalating a dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, more U.S. warships — as well as pirate reinforcements with an international gallery of hostages — rushed Friday toward the spot where four Somali bandits were holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.
The pirates apparently fear being shot or arrested if they hand over Capt. Richard Phillips — captured in a failed effort to seize the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday — and hope to link up with their colleagues who are using Filipino, German and other hostages captured in recent days as human shields.
U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.
“We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days,” he said.
Human shields … nice. You just gotta love terrorists, don’t you?
Anyway, Gen. Petraeus is on the job so there’s obviously nothing to worry about. In fact, we hear he’s already got a great exit strategy lined up for this whole situation (ba-doom-ching).
Frankly, we need to go Kaiser Soze on these people.
No, really.
If you shoot through the human shields, the Pirates might realize that there’s no purpose in using them anymore. And then the whole operation would grind to a halt. No more human hostages. No more ship-jackings.
No more pirates.
Better yet, break out some of those expensive night vision goggles the taxpayers provide, put simultaneous infrared scopes on the craniums of the people who are holding the human shields and then give the order for your snipers to simultaneously pull their triggers.
Once you’ve done that, the next step is much easier.
You simply fire a barrage of cruise missiles into the villages these thugs came from, followed up a few hours later with some bright yellow “Dear Thugs, Don’t f*ck with us again … ever. Love, America” leaflets.
Seriously, what’s the problem here?
But Western Democracies don’t get how to fight these degenerates, and so we end up with the world’s greatest Navy twiddling its thumbs and waiting for a bunch of hoodlums in skiffs to come at ‘em.
That makes a mockery of our “superpower” status.
Since government (as usual) isn’t stepping up, it’s clear that more aggressive private sector security is needed. The crew of the Maersk Alabama fought these terrorists off incredibly well based on their available resources, but these ships need more firepower, pure and simple.
In the future, every commercial ship passing through these parts should have trained soldiers with shoulder-mounted RPG’s and plenty of ammo working in shifts on the decks.
Anything comes close to the boat and it gets blown out of the water, period.
BTW, props to Maersk Alabama second-mate Ken Quinn … heroes really do have hot wives (and cute, cute kids).
Comments
By UpYers on April 10th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Agreed. We have the technology to easily isolate targets of interest (we have tech that can see through buildings, for goodness sake). A synchronized sniper attack would have worked well – we have now lost the upper hand. Where were the Navy Seals when the captain briefly escaped today?!? Someone is asleep at the wheel.
By johnypaycut on April 10th, 2009 at 11:44 am
the danger here lies in waiting for additional pirates. any number of possibilties are open. the navy should use seals to capture the 4men.
it needs to be done without the knowlege of these turkeys, snipers are not
the best/only option. a assault from a unobserved postion,the element of susprise.seals in the water will quickly end the stalemate.
By sinbad on April 10th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Obama doesn’t want to keep American safe. That poor sailer will probably die. He has realized that he can’t count on Obama to save him. That’s why he jumped ship. He’s been sleepless for days with limited food and water. If Obama was a true leader, the pirates would have been shark bait 2 days ago.
It must be demoralizing to be a Navy Seal and watch as an innocent American dies while Team Obama fiddles.
Obama cares more about his “international image” than the security of America.
Hillary warned us about that 3 am phone call.
BTW, our Russian pals just launched a ICBM with a 4,000 mile range.
Don’t we all feel safer with Obama at the helm?
By henry on April 10th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
No one is asleep at the wheel UpYers. Obama has ORDERED the SEALS to stand down. The SEALS are itching to save the American captain. Obama hasn’t given the order. With every passing minute, the captain’s liklihood for survival diminishes.
By cecee on April 10th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Just like Obama bowed to Saudi’s King Abdullah, he now genuflects before the Islamic hi-jackers.
Hope. Change. Hope. Change. Hope. Change. Hope. Change. Hope. Change.
North Korea. Russia. Venezuela. China. Iran. Hezbollah. Cuba. Hamas.–Congratulations! You’ve already won!
Congratulations are in order for you, too, President Soros!
By Mike on April 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Henry is correct; SEAL platoons (which are no doubt in the area by now) absolutely possess the capability to execute a rescue of this type, and have trained for it specifically. They have missed their best opportunity, but not through any fault of theirs. I can assure you that the “go” decision will be made from on high, not by the SEALs or whatever other specops unit gets involved. If it had been left up to the senior SEAL on station, this thing would be over by now, one way or the other…
By jan blotchsky on April 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Obama is leading and the terrorists are following!
By Big John on April 10th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I could not agree more. I hope that most Americans are outraged at our new negro (as he is known in the Persian and Middle Eastern Civilizations) president. What a leader! Basically we have an American ship taken by Somali pirates on the open sea. The men take the ship back. One person, the captain is taken hostage. We have a mighty Naval Destroyer right next to the pirates holding our citizen hostage. And where is Obama? He is thinking about a response. One great thing about George Bush, he would not be contemplating a response, he would be acting! Our negro president has his finger (possibly thumb) up his a_s. What kind of leader is he? What a useless excuse for a president . . . And Hilliary, what a useless Secretary of State to laugh at the situation. We need new leadership now. In 4 years, I look forward to seeing these clowns and our negro president go home!
By roofus on April 10th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
“America loves a winner and cannot tolerate a loser.”–General George Patton
Sorry, General, we have an incompentent, cowardly president who has a big, “soft-spot” for Muslim terrorists and hijackers. I know you are rolling in your grave…
By Earl Capps on April 11th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Don’t try to take the captors. Then we’d have to be responsible for them, and we know how much grief we’ll get over where they’re kept, how they’re treated, and so on.
Just kill the bastards and let God (or Allah or whoever) sort them out.
By roofus on April 11th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Hopey Change meets reality. Reality always wins.
By randee on April 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Obama’s response to the hijacking has been borderline treasonous! His impotence in not responding to a small, third world threat will have disasterous implications regarding our national security. North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Russia, China, Hezbollah, and Hamas will be emboldened. Israel will not rely on Obama’s word of protection. Obama is incapable of protecting Americans from third world pirates; he is also incapable of protecting the United States from first and second world military conventional and unconventional threats. America has lost any capability to deter hijackers and terrorists under Obama’s invisible “leadership”.
Obama is a threat to world peace!
Impeach Obama!
By roofus on April 12th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Randee,
Calm down. The American public is watching and will no doubt read between the lines. Clearly, an aggressive posture against the initial Maersk hijacking would have likely deterred the second, tug boat hijacking. But liberals don’t understand human nature. Thugs respond only to force. Remember Randee, liberals believe that America is the biggest threat to “world peace” not Islamic terrorist/hijacker fascists.
By Jed on April 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I can’t believe that pussy terrorist sympathizer Obama pussed out… Oh wait, he pretended to be negotiating while a strike force went in and killed the captors and the captain is fine. Huh… Surely it must have been some sort of mutiny where the U.S. forces overtly refused orders from the commander-in-chief and took matters into their own hands risking court-martials. That’s the only possibility.
By roofus on April 12th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Jed (or do you prefer Pat?),
Why did Obama risk the captain’s life unnecessarily for five days in 120+ heat? Why weren’t the Seals in position when the captian jumped ship several days ago?
I fully believe that this situation could have been decisively and successfully solved with a military solution 5 days ago. I would also posit that earlier, decisive action in regards to the Maersk hijacking may have deterred the subsequent American tug-boat hijacking.
Likely Obama spent the last five days running focus group polling. When the focus numbers looked dismal, Obama acted out of necessity. I am very grateful he didn’t get Jessie Jackson and Jimmy Carter involved as “mediators.”
Nevertheless, I am grateful for the positive outcome, despite the delay in military action.
By StopYourSpeculation on April 12th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
You are all complete idiots. You don’t have a clue about what you’re talking about.
By seymour on April 12th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
StopYourSpeculation,
What do you know, bub?
By jed on April 12th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
You can call me Pat or Kojak, but i don’t know why you’d use either.
It’s just as likely that this could have been done 5 days ago as it is that there’s some reason why the SEAL team may have said it couldn’t have been done 5 days ago. Unless you’re among the half-dozen or so people who were actually privy to all the facts (and god, I hope none of those people have enough spare time to be trolling through FITS — no offense Will) then it’s all speculation. My issue isn’t with people thinking that something could/should have been done sooner, it’s the ridiculous motivations that you (and that’s the plural ‘you’) have been attaching to the president’s decision-making process with only vague speculation and like-minded simpletons as your source material.
This was not “Under Siege 4″ (yet, check back next year) this was real and in the real world there are a lot more grey areas than there are in the movies.
By Chessley on April 13th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Come on, the President had his finger up his a_s. Had no damn clue what to do and obviously avoided the issue in the press conferences. Had to even remind his friends in the liberal media that he was not speaking about the hostage situation. A poor leader is our negro president.
By Yan Cuisine on April 20th, 2009 at 6:56 am
The best thing to deal with the pirates is to bomb all those fancy houses they have built with stolen money. bomb the houses in puntland to remind these bomber thieves that it is not okey to steel. Let them find jobs in their bombed country and start rebuilding and making somali a habitable country. I hope that these somalies are not going to seek refuge in east africa otherwise they will just be problatic people. i hate them…..