Posted on 04/12/2009 10:25:08 AM PDT by Ladycalif
U.S. ship captain held by pirates off Somalia, has been freed, senior U.S. official says. Three of four pirates killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Actually, on second thought it may have been optimal. Three examples set. The intelligence gained from the survivor may be about the same as the intelligence gained from all four, so perfect.
I think we ought to thank the fourth pirate publicly for his contributions to the rescue and his cooperation with American authorities, and then privately threaten to return him to his pirate masters if he didn’t spill his guts.
OK, Mr. Tactical genius, how do you know he did not? And the Pentagon's Special Ops planners said, 'Mr. President, if we are going to have a best outcome here, we should draw up a workable plan, train our guys for a day on it, and then fly them out' (which in and of itself could have taken a solid day). So you could be looking at three days just to get the SEALs out to the destroyer. And they might have waited for a cloudy night - the moon isn't that far past full right now and is lighting up the night sky if it is out.
The point is, you are shrieking because this wasn't done fast enough for you, with utterly no information as to any tactical and/or logistical constraints on launching a SEAL raid.
Somewhere out there right now there's a SEAL slapping his forehead - "Sure I read him his rights. Oh, man, I was supposed to read him his rights before I shot him? Who knew?"
I know, but if we know, they will know, you know?
:-D
Eric Shawn did a great job, too...so glad he was on board for this coverage.
I'm not for spreading rumours either, but I am very curious to know exactly what happened, particularly since the involvement of the FBI, which seemed quite inappropriate to me. My first response was to thank God and our wonderful military, then to hurry into the house to tell my husband the good news.
I have had suspicions all along about whether the Navy was given the trust and authority it needed to resolve this situation without any loss of American lives. Until and unless it is clear that they did have the support and authority they deserved and needed, I'm afraid I will continue to have my doubts.
Obama is the man and did a great job.Gee, no kidding? That was a quote from an obvious sarcastic post.Obama did not do a great job.
However, our military presented him with options and he had the brass and the brains to select the right option.
Yea, that is what the press will stay. If Obama could have communicated with the Captain, we know he would have told him to completely cooperate and not try to escape. That's the leftist mantra with situations like this, as well as rape.
Never works as well as bravery.
This was carried out successfully in spite of Obama and his hesitancy to jump in with a solution. Because he didn't have one, the military did.
It shows us that Obama is no Jimmy Carter and that is a Victory for America.
Quite the contrary, it shows that Obama is as bad if not worse than Carter.
Obama was on track to have this brave guy on Somali land for 444 days.
Let's wait to give Obama credit until he does it himself. You can bet he will. He may be too humble, and have his handlers (or lackeys) do it though.
What is your take on it kabar, few have your experiences.
April fool Achmed..
Obama is going to send a crack team of blue ribbon fbi negotiators...
Obama’s world view does not allow him to understand military concepts. His arrogance prevents him from learning. Instead he expect the miliarty to adope obama carter diplomacy.
Obama just created his own hostage crisis ala jimmy carter. Instead of one holder with hostages he has 250+ hostage situations.
Drop 6 over the side, rebreathers with no bubbles, they have a very good idea where everyone is in the lifeboat.
They quietly surface alongside, get a quick verification from ship (probably by signal light, not radio,) that everyone is in the same places.
Throw a flashbang into the boat. 4 SEALS on one side of the boat put one hand on the gunwale, rise up and start shooting the bad guys. Quad tap them all.
Flashbang throw to end of hostilities? Less than 14 seconds.
My kind of combat.
I pull trigger of gun, no swim....
JOE the Sailor-I love it
This appears to be erroneous early reporting. All 4 of those dirtbags were still in that lifeboat with the Capt., until he jumped out anyway, and was replaced by a bunch of SEALS.
None of them were on the Bainbridge. All were in the lifeboat. Three were killed and one was wounded.
WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama and his family took communion to celebrate Easter Sunday. The first family attended St. John’s Church for their first public worship service since the inauguration.
I’d assume the seals were in the water alongside the boat and signaled him from there. Probably by yelling “Jump!.
_________________
That’s my best guess too. The Navy Seals are nothing short of incredible. Those guys are so tough and so well trained. I watched a special one time showing the training they went through to get to be a Seal. I can’t express how much I respect them.
You're arguments are undermined by the fact that there still were several days before the lifeboat drifted to within Somali territorial waters (not that there is a Somali Navy to do anything about entry into such). I disagree that we needed to do something right away. The Internet is full of armchair generals and admirals. But life is not '24' - you do not order an assault on a building at 15 minutes past the hour and have the team on-site with a plan and air cover at 35 minutes past the hour. Five days to me seems like a reasonable amount of time to develop a plan, train on it, fly the team(s) out to the destroyer, and then assess the actual sitution and execute the plan. There was no compelling interest to act faster, and the fact that we saved the captian demonstrates we have the ability to do the difficult. The Israelis could have just bombed the crap out of Entebbe airport to kill the terrorists. But they pulled off a much bigger defeat to terrorists by saving almost all the hostages. Same thing here with the captain - you had four armed men out of sight holding him. Yet our military got him out alive.
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