Can you blame them? Three of their compatriots were killed while innocently performing the duties of their job. How would YOU feel if your buddies were unjustly murdered by a brutal police state while they were working at their local engineering company/law firm/school, etc. Sheesh. Nobody calls in the Navy Seals when YOU do YOUR job.
What's the penalty for piracy? Is there a possibility of a death penalty? It seems like the US wasn't offering anything in the negotiation except the chance to avoid immediate death.
That's not true. Why do people still think that? After the Black Hawk Down incident, we still stayed there for 6 months.
These pirates seem fairly rag tag and Somalia doesn't have a central government. Do they have enough top down control to decide on strategy?
This probably deserves its own thread, which would be titled Fox News Ass-Wombats Pwned by Navy SEALs http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001151/
ROFLMAO !!!! Yep, Obama won't act.....this is getting ridiculous....Obama is by far the best man for the job...and they can't stand it. And it most assuradly deserves it's own thread. DD
I love the video. Always known those reps are loons. When will the rest of America wakes up and smells the roses ... or skunks.
Do you really want to go there? Google "Reagan and Lebanon." My comment was because of uncounted breathless babblings from GOP talking heads and imitators outside the mainstream media (like here) carrying on about how a Democratic President would leave us defenseless and would be unable to deal with security threats, if elected. If you want to cherry-pick incidents and decisions by Presidents of both parties, regarding national security, in the way you just did, then expect to be bombarded with various GOP Presidential stupidities from the past. Assuming people like me care to bother.
First off not everyone who posts on this board is a GOP lemming if they say something negative about a dem. Second I was giving you past instances involving HOSTAGES and a dem president which might explain some peoples doubts (I never had any doubt, but you pre-flame-suited for) about our president. Talk about over reaction city.
Quote: Originally Posted by rocket3forlife2 I'n sure George Bush, would have either let them take the guy as a hostage and watched them cut off his head , or just blew the hold boat up with the captain on it.This was small, but it was very important because it shows a change in strategy and diplomacy from the bush administration.I can only imagine if it had went the other way, the Republican spin machine would have been at work vehemently. ********************************************************* Change in strategy? You're compairing a hostage/ransom situation on water, in a little boat, with land operations concerning terrorists who's desire it is to kill us, by whatever means? The US Navy used their resources to get a mission done, the president just gave the OK. I'm sure Bush would have been itching to sink the whole boat, leaving no chance that a Pirate could swim away in the middle of the ocean. Agree.
I know it's pathetic that so much of Africa sucks, and I know that personal responsibility doesn't register to many in this country, hence we get to hear another spiel that still rings hollow.....I'm where I am, because of someone else...blah blah blah... Africa may some day graduate to Mexico status.
America, **** Yeah! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/world/africa/14sniper.html?ref=global-home WASHINGTON — The hard part was not the distance, 75 feet, an easy range for an experienced sniper. Far more difficult were all the moving parts: the bobbing lifeboat, the rolling ship, hitting three targets simultaneously in darkness — and all without harming the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips. That was the consensus on Monday from former members of the Navy Seals who said they were impressed by the skills of three Seal snipers who aimed from the fantail of the destroyer Bainbridge and picked off three Somali pirates holding Captain Phillips in a small lifeboat that was being towed about 75 feet behind the destroyer. “For all three of them to fire those shots at the same time and take those guys out, it was quite a feat,” said Don Shipley, a former member of the Seals who now runs a private Seal training school in Chesapeake, Va. “They showed the patience the sniper has, which is looking through the scope for hours to get that perfect shot.” A Defense official said that the three snipers, who had authority from President Obama to shoot if they thought Captain Phillips’ life was in danger, fired when they saw a pirate aiming a rifle at the captain’s back. There was no command to fire at that given moment, the official said. Several dozen members of the Seals had secretly boarded the Bainbridge on Saturday, having flown to the area, parachuted into the ocean and then climbed aboard inflatable boats they had dropped into the sea. The Navy would not say where they were based or if they were part of even more elite, clandestine military units that have historically been used for hostage rescues. But a former member of the Seals said the events unfolded as a classic hostage rescue operation and that Seal snipers trained daily, and under all conditions, to maintain precision skills. “Training from a moving platform is something they do all the time,” said the former member, Harry Humphries, who is now a security consultant and actor. “That’s a classic problem at sea.” Jamey Cummings, another former member of the Seals who is now an executive headhunter, said most Seal platoons of 16 had at least two snipers who were essential to the tactics of the group. “It’s a common misperception that Seals like to sneak up on people and use knives on them,” he said. “If you have to do that, the mission was probably not planned that way.”
I've heard the Astros are having some problems with some Pirates too. Where are the Navy SEALs ?! I demand snipers Obama!!1111
