Posted on 04/11/2009 7:15:37 PM PDT by fooman
The "per hour" is redundant. Just say 3-4 knots. A knot is 1 nautical mile per hour.
Well, I suppose you could look at all the geopolitical ramifications of this incident, and none of them would be good for the US. But, I was speaking specifically about this one hostage. My background is not in LE, but it is military. While no two hostage situations are alike, generally speaking, the longer it goes, the better a chance of a safe resolution for the hostage.
As I said, so long as the lifeboat is bobbing in the middle of the open ocean, and doesn't make it to shore or is reinforced by other pirate ships, the US Navy still maintains the initiative and control - they haven't lost anything yet.
There aren't any good military options, certainly not with a vessel that small and not without extraordinary risk to the the hostage.
The gas killed over 120 hostages.
yep, he did not let that get in the way, either.
Then what will the Great Obama do?
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I think when this is over, with the benefit of hindsight it will be obvious that the time to act was when the captain escaped, and that we were prevented from doing so by our commander in chief, who, like Jimmy Carter, believes in the innate goodness of all our enemies. Thus he will always respond to violence with patience ,understanding, and negotiation.
Given they were bobbing for close to 4 days, that would be 96 hours. Or a potential 400 miles covered.
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If your numbers are close that means they will hit the
coast in the middle of the day,,,
If the SEALs haven’t already hit them it’s too late,,,
Wind : 14 mph W by N,,,Aden is as close as I can find in that zone,,,
O’Bammy may have put a “Red Light” on a rescue...
This is my fear too.
You are supposed to put like 4 inches of seawater into the toilet...then dump it over after a few uses, or when it develops an odor. Salt water is pretty good in a toilet for keeping it clean. There is a small pail with a line on it for handling the toilet chores. The bench beds lift open like huge footlockers, inside is everything...flares, food, water, first aid, gps, emergency beacons, 121.5mhz aircraft walkies...etc.
With the current AND the 14 MPH wind behind them, they’ll have no problem bridging that last 20-30 miles...
Hopefully a SEAL team attaches an anchor to the bottom of the boat, right off the drive shaft. Attach it with a 300 meter shock cord to an anchor or to another ship/boat, and they would never feel it pull taut. Just slowly come to a stop.
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The longer a hostage situation goes the better chances the hostage survives is undoubtedly true. However, each time we negotiate with a hostage taker we increase the chances that in the future hostages will again be taken. I believe the military option could have been played out when the Captain escaped. I'm sure he counted on the destroyer taking out the boat shortly after he hit the water. Imagine his surprise when we did nothing. I believe the Navy was ordered by the CIC not to use force. I can't conceive of the Navy not monitoring all activity on that boat and also being able to easily descern the difference between the captain and the islamists.
07:00 there now,,,Daylight,,,
Hopin’ for news soon,,,
This ain’t good...
Yup, they need to be towing that damned lifeboat behind a destroyer.
This should have been resolved days ago!!
I don't think that the Skipper made it far enough away from the lifeboat for someone to open up with a M60 or a .50 cal. From two or three hundred yards away, it would be impossible to put all the rounds going down range precisely on the target. For the skipper to have been rescued, the watch would've needed permission from the bridge to open up. That would have required more than the minute or two that he was out of the boat.
Even a man-overboard drill takes several minutes.
Of course, this is all based on reporting, so we won't know exactly what the circumstances were until there's a proper after-action report compiled.
As for Barry giving permission, I would guess that a rescue attempt would be cleared at the Pentagon at a minimum, and probably the WH. But, I can promise you the naval Captain has already received very clear and precise rules of engagement. I'm sure if the skipper would have made it far enough from the lifeboat, the Navy Captain has strike authority.
That sounds like a lot of work for people who are used to wiping with the right and eating with their left. I'm sticking with the boat is "stinking like a business end of an Elephant's A$$.
“Hell, Reuters thinks ‘PIRACY’ is a business!”
— I minored in it in college...
LOL......I noticed the few who are paying attention are saying the same old BS that its Bush/Cheny/Halliburton/Blackwater's fault, or something like "we need to understand them better" What complete fools these people are.
Even the French had more guts than the chosen one. They went in there heavy, lost a few, but got most people and the ship back.
Nothing new up yet,,,
I sure hope they did something,,,
No news on the Boxer,,,
From Navy.mil :
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) - 5th Fleet
USS Boxer (LHD 4) - 5th Fleet
If the deed ain’t done it ain’t gunna be...
You are most likely correct, I’d hate to get a whiff of the insides of that plastic boat :-/
IIRC most of those 120 deaths were from respiratory arrest. They had more non-breathing victims than they could handle at once. If we could get the gas into the lifeboat and if it worked quickly enough so the pirates couldn’t shoot the Captain (admittedly two big ifs) then we’d only have one hostage to save. There are certainly SEALs trained to intubate and bag him on the way back to a naval ship. If they could prevent the pirates from shooting, the rest would be straightforward. Devoting extra resources to try to save the pirates grows the mission, makes it more likely surprise will be lost and it will fail. Don’t bother with resources for them other than plenty of restraints.
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