[dirtboy]

You set a very low bar for what constitutes a "great outcome." I didn't expect anything less. When you make the safety of the Captain the most important objective above national interests, this is the kind of ridiculous situation you find yourself in, i.e., four ragtag pirates in a lifeboat without gas in the middle of the ocean making demands and holding the world's lone superpower hostage for five days. The sad part is that the Captain's release unharmed will convince most of the American people that this a "great" success. I am more concerned about how are enemies view it.

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.

[kabar]

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.

You make up a phony strawman and the proceed to dismantle it. I expect any such operation to be well planned with all of the necessary resources on scene. I don't know how you define right away, but IMO five days were too long. Somehow we were able to get the FBI negotiatiors on scene "right away."

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.

You are making the assumption that Captain Philips second escape attempt was planned and that we would not continue to negotiate. Estimates are that the lifeboat was about 20 miles from shore. Time was not exactly on our side. Other pirates were trying to assist they and they held hostages, whose safety they could link to the fate of Capt Philips'" hostage takers. We allowed this incident to grow in importance and significance. And it may be far from over in terms of the other hostages.

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.

Comparing the challenges posed by the rescue in Entebbe to what we faced with the Somali pirates is pure nonsense. No comparison.