[Eurotwit]

"It was an intervention not a pulverization," General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the armed forces general staff told a news conference in Paris."

Pity, I prefer pulverizations.

Cheers.

[2banana]

A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.

Yeah - right...

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

For all the keyboard warriors who make fun of the french, I bet none of them would want to go face to face with any of the group that carried out this mission. Good post.

[NormsRevenge]

What?
No HellFiRe?

damn, just damn.

[farlander]

“A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.”

Well then. Who in the hell was on that yacht that it required parachuting an Admiral no less into the sea so he could oversee the rescue operation ?

Quite a bold move for the French, no less. Whaddya know, a conservative president gets elected and Frech start showing spine. This calls for a nice bottle of Bordeaux.

[wideawake]

Piracy is lucrative off lawless Somalia and most kidnappers treat their captives well in anticipation of a good ransom.

Wow, those pirates are really swell, treating their prisoners so nice and all.

Wait a minute . . .

3,200 sailors had been kidnapped by pirates, 500 injured and 160 killed.

Oh, so they treat them well - by wounding or murdering more than one out of every five captives.

Thanks, Reuters!

[ASA Vet]

SOCOM Ping!

[WayneS]

Good work, guys.

I really didn’t think France has it in them any more.

Thanks for proving me wrong.

[bboop]

‘to the shores of Tripoli’ — some things never change.

Hooray for Sarkozy. Go Frenchies!!

[blasater1960]

I was going to make a wisecrack....but then just read about our Navy shooting a "flare" at a Iranian terror boat. OOOoohh a flare.

It's the whole of Western Civ that sucks not just the French.

[george76]

I prefer pulverizations

[blam]

Excellent news.

The Sarkozy French.

I even bought some Michelein tires after Sarkozy was elected.

[steveyp]

Single shot through the engine block.

[Belasarius]

We heap imprecations on the French as a matter of course but I believe them to be quite blood-thirsty and ruthless when it impacts something they consider to be touching on their honor and own self-interest. Normally, their moralism is out front and on display but carefully tucked away for safekeeping when throats need to be cut. If we were ever really intending to murder somebody for political reasons I believe we could get a Frenchman to hold our coat.

They seem to be able intervene in Africa whenever they want without a peep from anybody. Nobody considers their forays on the continent to be imperialist gestures therefore they have a freedom of action that would be quite useful if we had it.

[jazusamo]

Pity, I prefer pulverizations.

So do I but kudos to the French for going in after them.

[GulfBreeze]

So let me just get these facts straight.

The hostages were free. The ship was returned. Their was no imminent threat.

The French acted ‘unilaterally’ in international waters as well as on the sovergn territory of another country. This was entirely a preemptive war to make sure that this sort of thing didn’t occur again, or atleast not with these bad actors.

Well it’s about damn time te French showed up to the party. Yeeeehaaawwwww....

.... oooohhhh I forgot to ask. One more question here. Who carried the white flag incase there was any problems?

[mylife]

"When we captured the pirates we also recovered some interesting bags,"

What kind of swag was in the bag?

[Clive]

Here is another perspective from Reuters via National Post:

French helicopters fire after seizing Somali pirates

BOSASSO, Somalia -- French military helicopters on Friday fired rockets at pirates who had released hostages they had been holding on a captured luxury yacht off the coast of Somalia, witnesses said.

An unknown number of people were killed by the rocket fire, which also destroyed three vehicles.

"I could see clouds of smoke as six helicopters were bombing the pirates. The pirates were also firing anti-aircraft machine guns in reaction. I cannot tell the exact casualties," witness Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters by radio telephone.

The district commissioner of Garaad, where the attack took place, said the helicopters landed and troops jumped out to grab members of a group of 14 pirates who had just gotten ashore where three pickup trucks with heavy weapons were waiting.

"Local residents came out to the see the helicopters on the ground. The helicopters took off and fired rockets on the vehicles and the residents there, killing five local people," Commissioner Abdiaziz Olu-Yusuf Mohamed told Reuters by phone.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from French authorities, which earlier said soldiers had arrested six pirates and flown them to a navy ship that had been tracking the Ponant yacht since it was seized last week in the Gulf of Aden.

[Little Pig]

Some enterprising PMC needs to buy up some good-sized fancy yachts, and a bunch of BOFORS 40mm guns, and go pirate-hunting. I can’t imagine there aren’t at least a few deep-pocketed persons, or commercial shipping concerns, that would sure like easier passage for maritime transport through the East Africa region.

[dead]

Georgelin said no public money was paid to free the hostages but he indicated that the ships owner had paid a ransom, part of which was found with the escaping pirates.

"Part of which" sounds like some got away.

Parachute another admiral into the sea until you get them all!

[95 Bravo]

Dead or captured, at least some bad guys are out of circulation. The French did the job, more power to ‘em.