Posted on 04/11/2009 1:24:23 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
UNDERHILL, Vt. — At sea he is intense and resolute, so when Capt. Richard Phillips tried to escape his pirate captors Friday by leaping off their slow-moving lifeboat, some of his closest friends did not blink.
But at home, friends and relatives said, Captain Phillips, 53, is a consummate regular guy who worships Boston sports teams, particularly the Celtics, shoots hoops at the Y.M.C.A., plays golf with retirees and faithfully picks up muffins for Sunday brunch with his family. When he is away, plying dangerous ocean waters as a merchant ship captain, the image his neighbors here remember is of him placidly riding his lawnmower.
Now he is at the center of an extraordinary international incident. “When he went for that swim today, it didn’t surprise me at all,” said Peter Wakefield, who grew up with the captain outside Boston and visited him last month. “He’s got good intuition, and he’s a very determined guy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Got Overseas Contingency Operation?
Hostage-taking pirates, seizing assets, demanding more money from Americans. But enough about the Obama administration.
In another milestone, Obama has gone Jimmy Carter even before Jimmy Carter went Jimmy Carter. Even Carter wasn't as namby-pamby wimpy as Omamma's boy. A killer rabbit had managed to penetrate the Secret Service in a devilish plot to pirate Carter's canoe, but Carter bravely beat back the barbaric monster critter with one canoe paddle! Obama: Mr. Killer Rabbit, can we talk about this? Better not hurt me! I'll call the FBI to negotiate!
Obama would want to know what the swashbuckling, swaggering beastly Texas cowboy had done to the peaceful, misunderstood killer rabbit, noting that America had shown arrogance and had been dismissive of rabbits, then he'd offer the furry little pirate a "pathway to citizenship", and "card check", then he'd fly off to Camp David, call the whole thing a "distraction", even as feisty John Kerry vowed from aboard his swift-boat to form a committee to hold hearings on ways to more effectively capitulate to killer rabbits, while the Congressional Black Caucus pays the rabbit a visit, making sure he wasn't harmed by Obama's tough-guy approach.
Now that Obama has 'cleaned up' America's 'image' abroad by bowing to the Saudi King, a group of Muslim Somali terrorists, oops, sorry . . . peaceful Somali fishermen tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama, but the crew regained control of the cargo ship, apparently before Olabama could order them to surrender, in keeping with his commitment to the safety of all pirates concerned.
After Capt. Richard Phillips was recaptured following a desperate escape attempt, the AP praised Obama's "cautious response". So far, present Obama is bravely keeping mum, apparently wanting to dial the whole thing back from 'Piracy Crisis' to 'annoyance', or 'distraction from my wonderful housing plan.' If that doesn't work, he'll just shoot pollution into the air to cool things down.
"True to form, [Obama] is striking a cautious, low-profile public stance as the piracy crisis plays out," the AP fawned. As part of Obama's cunning low-profile effort, more naval vessels are joining the USS Bainbridge to watch Somali "pirates" hold an American hostage, on orders from the White House's USS Braindead.
Ironically, liberals insist that, just because these Muslim pirates hijack vessels and seize civilians and hold them hostage and demand ransom doesn't mean they're Muslim terrorists or anything, but don't hurt them or else Muslims will do something really terroristic, like hijack a cargo ship and demand ransom!
If this is no biggie, just a wittle, teensy-weensy isolated incident, just one of those things that happen every 200 years, nothing to see here, move on -- as White House flacks keep telling Obama's media -- then what does it say that the propped-up flailing messiah accomplished in less than three months what took Jimmy Carter four years to achieve (turning America into a global laughing stock)?
If you're North Korea or Iran's mullahs, you're getting a tingle up your leg glimpsing the enervated, enfeebled, limping TOTUS blundering around over a few lightly armed "pirates" in a lifeboat. A Navy SEAL team would ice the little darlings once Capt. Phillips jumped overboard to escape, but you've got a community organizer "closely monitoring" the 'pirate situation' when you need a president.
If Obama vowed to move rapidly to uselessly reboot our image abroad, he's done it in spades, which is how you get rocketman Kim Jong-Il's missile test, Iran running 7,000 advanced centrifuges, the UN Security Council laughing you off, Austrians rebuffing you (in their native Austrian language!) and the French doing a 'how-to' hostage rescue, all in the same lousy week.
Anyway, that's...
My Two Cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Well, I say let’s get that captain out of there, and then let’s get our own ships out of there. Let the rest of the world take care of the problem that they’ve “let go” for so long.
All this time and the rest of the world has done nothing about the problem, except cater to the pirates and pay them more and more money. The U.S. hasn’t been doing that. It’s all those other countries who have let it go on for so long.
So, why should the U.S. have to “bail out” the rest of the world, all those other countries who have let this go on for so long, on “their own watch” all this time? I say, no — let them take care of it.
Get the U.S. out of there, unless those other countries come to us and ask us to help them — and then, they also agree to pay our bills for doing so.
If they don’t want to do that — then they can do it themselves, since they’ve ignored this problem for so long...
Oh, and by the way, for the readers who haven’t see the table/chart that I put together with the help of other FReepers, it’s here...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2226437/posts?page=43#43
By now that's noöne.
I hadn’t seen it. Thanks for posting.
> Let the rest of the world take care of the problem that they’ve “let go” for so long.
The United States is the undeclared police organization of the world. We may not like it but it is fact. When we get the hostage back, we need to erase a couple of pirate villages. We know where they live. We should have wiped them out long ago.
That said; if Somalia needs 'donations'; rather than our delivering them; let them come get it. . .until they get control of the piracy; by means, where a 'Justice' prevails; that is. . .
Glad to hear he’s placid...He looks like early Dan Aykroyd!
A placid Captain at sea waiting on a flaccid ‘leader’ in D.C.
Prayers up for captain Phillips
I would take the pirates families hostage and then start the bargaining. I realize this is difficult. At minimum demolish via air strikes all pirate houses and compounds when we get the good captain back
The second he hit the water, that lifeboat should have been SHREDDED by our Navy. If the lack of such response is a new Dalai Bama/Clinton policy, I’m gonna be PISSED.......
What am I missing here?
I don't give a rap about the foreign freighters. They want us to defend their lucrative passages, so let them get hi-jacked. Skrue 'em.
Leni
I heard there were drones circling the lifeboat. They should be infra red and equipped to SHRED as you put it. We have the capability and it is criminal not to deploy.
Even the pathetic Frenchies freed some hostages yesterday and offed a few pirates
Nerves of steel!
(....unlike a certain schlemiel....)
Leni
Think the interlopers need to be blasted out of the water. A clear, definitive message sent; again; and again, fow however long necessary.
Yes, it is 'our' probelem per our ships; we need 'guns' and someone needs to step up and be 'President' here and end this crime now unfolding.
The second he hit the water, that lifeboat should have been SHREDDED by our Navy. If the lack of such response is a new Dalai Bama/Clinton policy, I’m gonna be PISSED.......
This was the opportunity to open fire on the pirates and snatch the Captain.....he was ready, the Navy was not.
I'm not necessarily blaming the Navy, they probably have orders from Obamaland not to shoot. Which, ironically, may end up costing Phillips his life.
Makes me wonder why it wasn't... It could be that it wasn't even known he had made an escape attempt because of proximity of our vessel(s). Don't want to second guess what occurred or why, but it would be interesting to know the circumstances here.
A placid captain, and a flaccid president.
I think they’ll get the captain, all right, one way or another. After that, the navy can get out of that place. No use hanging around there. Leave it to the other ships... :-)
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