Posted on 04/13/2009 5:44:56 AM PDT by Alter Kaker
Obliterate every possible pirate refuge,then I’ll consider it a victory, otherwise its the same old crap.
“The Navy Seals did an excellent job. As soon as my husband heard the captain was safe, he knew the Navy Seals were in charge. “
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If this had gone badly, snipers take shots but the pirates get off a round and kill the Capt, or snipers hit Capt by mistake or possibly delay a shot and the Capt is killed by pirates-would you be posting that the SEALS were in charge and they were responsible for the poor outcome? That is what I mean, if things had gone wrong we would have pinned it on Obama. Since things went well, we have to (to be consistent) give Obama kudos. Certainly he was not the shooter but he was in a position to make a hundred wrong calls and didn’t. Give the Devil his due, congratulations to all, and thanks for answered prayers on behalf of the Capt and his family.
If an outcome like this had happened on Bush’s watch, they would have denounced him as a warmonger and a savage.
Jeff Greenfield was on the Imus show saying there won’t be any rallies in Berkeley supporting the pirates. How can he be sure? If this happened when Bush were president, there would have been.
There is said to be great joy in the captain’s hometown up in Vermont. This surprises me. VT is hardly part of America anymore. I would think most people there would say we deserve this, or that the pirates are justified in their actions.
I have to agree with your take on this. All turned out about as well as could be hoped, so we shouldn't try to make more out this.
To be honest, I was getting worried that Obama would wait too long, then do something rash because the most opportune moment for a rescue had passed. Kinda like Carter's "Desert One".
Of course there's still the small matter of Piracy in the Horn of Africa. If it is not addressed in a comprehensive way, this will happen again (and the next hostages may not be so lucky).
The pirates are saying they're going to get even with the U.S. for killing their men. I assume Oboma would find a way to blame Bush for that, too.
The pirates are saying they're going to get even with the U.S. for killing their men. I assume Oboma would find a way to blame Bush for that, too.
“Of course there’s still the small matter of Piracy in the Horn of Africa. If it is not addressed in a comprehensive way, this will happen again (and the next hostages may not be so lucky). “
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Agreed. I’m glad that Obama did not use this as an opportunity to grand stand and make a position statement rather then deal with the crisis at hand. The goal here was to free the Captain safely and that happened. Bravo.
Now the bigger picture. A friend of mine and Viet Nam vet naval officer recommends positioning ships five miles off the Somali coast and sinking anything that travels 5 miles and one inch off of Somalia. This gives small, honest Somali fishermen use of their coast and the pirates no room to operate. When the practice of piracy becomes a fatal choice, the pirates will go back to smoking kak and beating their wives.
And his “standing order” differed from those issued by previous presidents how?
What made his messianic whereas previous president’s standing orders were deficient how?
So in other words, the mere fact that Captain Phillips was held hostage in a lifeboat by AK-wielding pirates who threatened to kill him if a ransom was paid was NOT considered by Obama to be a situation in which the Captain's life was in immediate danger.
Note carefully that Obama did NOT authorize the Navy to free Captain Phillips from the pirates using force. ONLY if there was some "immediate danger" were they authorized to use force. Clearly, Obama did not consider him to be in immediate danger solely by reason of being held hostage by gun-wielding pirates, or he would not have added the qualifier "immediate danger."
It appears from the way Obama worded his "order" the Navy basically took complete responsibility for the operation. If Captain Phillips had been erroneously killed by the US military or intentionally killed by the pirates following a rescue attempt, then Obama would be second-guessing the Navy as to whether Phillips was really in "immediate danger" at the time the rescue was attempted, arguing instead that it was the US Navy that placed the Captain's life in "immediate danger" as a result of attempting a rescue which resulted in his death, and thereby going beyond Obama's "wise and prudent" order NOT to do so.
Kudos to the Navy and Marines.
“And his “standing order” differed from those issued by previous presidents how?
What made his messianic whereas previous president’s standing orders were deficient how?”
Agreed.
Are we supposed to kneel in awe because the Messiah did what was expected of anyone in his position?
I won’t.
This is telling me, that the one does not want to get his hands dirty over this incident./Just Asking - seoul62.......
That's exactly what I've been thinking...if this had occurred under Bush's watch, and he made the call on day 1, the Left would have criticized him as a reckless cowboy shooting from the hip.
On the flip side, if he had done exactly as Obama did and it took a week or so, they would have criticized him for being too busy reading "My Pet Goat, part II" or something of the sort.
As it is though, Obama could do no wrong. I'm glad this story had a happy ending, and I'll give Obama a little credit for not getting in the way or telling the military to stand down ala Clinton vs bin Laden back in the day, but in the end, the vast majority of the credit goes to our men and women in uniform.
Besides, you know that if this had ended in tragedy, Obama would have claimed that he "inherited this crisis from the Somalis..."
Related thread:
4 years of this is gonna be some FUN!
“He set the priority of saving the captain’s life “
Proof, please. Your statement assumes the military would not have placed the life of the captain as their priority without Obama having made it so. That is total BS. The military wouldn’t have been there is not to save the life of the captain.
I read that in a couple of the accounts today. And your logic is failed - the crew could have been operating off the same basic approach as Obama, but Obama did affirm that directive. We had several keyboard commandos saying a few days ago on FR that the Navy should have blown the lifeboat out of the water to send a message to pirates everywhere, the captain's life be damned, and fortunately Obama discarded that kind of advice.
"And I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy in that region...."
“I read that in a couple of the accounts today.”
Where, DemocraticUnderground?? CNN?? What liberal op-ed piece was it?
Well of course not. They had to wait and see the outcome. If successful, Zero takes credit. If a failure, Zero can scold the military for screwing it up.
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