Posted on 04/10/2009 5:41:46 AM PDT by chessplayer
NAIROBI, Kenya – 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 are holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“They waited too long and allowed the enemy to bring in reinforcements. The Seals could have hit them 24 hours ago.”
That is easier said than done. It’s a covered boat with a door. Attacking a boat quickly enough to confuse the hostages and rescue the captain would be difficult at best. I still think the best approach is to send a team in to penetrate the hull so the boat will sink slowly. The negotiations will end and the pirates will know that if they kill the captain they are dead. They will have to make some quick decisions and survival will be foremost in their minds. These are not terrorists with a death wish, these are common pirates wanting to make fast money.
Without boats, these vermin will have a very difficult time in accosting another ship.
If these parasites persist, we bomb their home bases.
“Bring out a half dozen European hostages, shoot one of them and then threaten to shoot more if the boat with the ship captain’s kidnappers isn’t allowed to go to shore.”
A counterpoint is to let the pirates know if they kill a single hostage we sink the ship. If it comes to that you can be damned sure the other pirate ships will try to flee or surrender.
Sounds like a target rich environment.
A few stun grenades by SEALs with nightvision equipment can disorient and confuse the hostage takers. The night belongs to us.
“I still think the best approach is to send a team in to penetrate the hull so the boat will sink slowly.”
These type of lifeboats are designed not to sink. Even if the hull were penetrated, the boat would still float.
Yup, the experienced sailors involved (both hostage and rescuers) just understand that everyone waits for the captain to grab an opportunity to jump overboard for a few seconds to give a clear shot, at which point the remaining pirates are immediately taken out. They’re all smart enough to figure that out, we just have to wait for it to happen.
...oh wait, the captain did figure it out already, lept overboard already, gave the clear window of opportunity already, and nobody else did squat most likely because of orders from on high, leading to the captain being re-captured and presumably more firmly restrained. Opportunity taken, squandered, and gone.
As if hussein gives a damn about our sovereignty.
At least those in the chain of command, and possibly a few good sailors on the Bainbridge know the real answer.
If it is learned later that politics played a hand in this and prevented effective military action, then the blame will lay at the feet of voters in last fall's election.
That is the nature of a democratic republic.
An effective chain of command would have entrusted the skipper of the Bainbridge with enough free rein to make the best decision on the spot.
Ahmadinejad has noticed that the first course of action in all cases is for the Teleprompter to deliver whatever text magically appears.
Second, if that fails, get congress to throw some money at it, and if that fails,
turn it over to the UN.
The Iran hostage crisis happened during my first 10 years out of the military.
Then the hostage attempt failed in the desert. I thought at the time and still consider the failure due to too many political hands trying to play nice.
Ahmadinejad and others are learning much about an ineffective means to act and respond.
Jimmy Carter became a "has been" overnight because he thought it was his responsibility to dream up all of the bright solutions.
An executive is successful when they operate like Reagan and push the ability to act down the chain of command.
It sounds like a bunch of hands are being tied so that a political decision can be made.
Hey folks, it is just one man in a lifeboat with a few armed pirates. This is the type of situation that military is best suited for. Let them act!!
“If it is learned later that politics played a hand in this and prevented effective military action, then the blame will lay at the feet of voters in last fall’s election.”
The only way we’d learn THAT is if we read it in the papers... Fat chance...
LC
1. Poor Captain Phillips. Why was there nobody nearby to help him when it would be so easy to surround an unpowered boat for the contingency of his escape and rescue? Somebody was preventing that contingency action
2. What are the odds that four or five Somali thugs can have a cogent strategy to outsmart the U.S. Navy? Two ...slim and none, they are getting help
3. The time for surprise has passed. The profile has become too high, it has become a morass, a full fledged standoff. Frozen in fear to act. There are times to act quickly and decisively and if not done there are almost no good endings or alternatives.
4. See item 2. I doubt these guys are very smart and doubt very seriously that any survivor would act rationally. You shoot the ones on deck or in the open and the remaining one acts in a panic and irrationally.
5. The other ships have multiple hostages from Russia, Germany, Phillipines etc. Collateral damage would spark an international incident for ZERO who wants everyone to love him. ZERO is a coward, he exhibits no courage and only preys on easy marks, he is a schoolyard bully but not in a physical sense, confronted he is a coward. This is too complicated for him, he is frozen and has frozen those who know what to do ...and now it is too late for those who know what to do to execute the proper action without creating the international incident.
6. The negative messages this sends are numerous ...I traveled worldwide after 9/11 without much concern because the message was clear ...mess with a U.S. citizen and suffer the consequences. The message hung out there ...now it doesn’t. A U.S. vessel with releif supplies is hijacked and all we can do is rush to the scene so our NAVY can be witnesses followed by pirates in ships with hostages from elsewhere to surround and watch and dare action that they know will not come. You don’t sail in harm’s way to face off a warship with a scow unless you have a real good idea that nothing will happen.
PS:
Captain Phillips is considered a RWG (Rich White Guy). That makes him overpaid and underserving exploiter of those he saved in the eyes of ZERO.
That enclosed fiberglass lifeboat has got to be ripe with those darkies in it. The stench will kill if nothing else does.
Why doesn’t the Navy just sink the liferaft. When the pirates are swimming for their lives, shoot them... end of hostage crisis.
Absolutely!!!!
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