[swarthyguy]

Some excerpts from the article indicate that it’s not as clear cut as painted by many here.....

.....But most of all, they waited as a series of seemingly insignificant moves — from extending the pirates a rope to bringing an injured brigand on-board — improved their odds of success.

“Bringing them in closer gave them a smoother ride,” said a senior U.S. military official, describing internal deliberations on condition of anonymity. “Also, if we had to take kinetic action — as we did in this case — the shot would have greater potential for success.”
.......

crisis seems to have crystallized for the administration on Friday, after the White House got word that Capt. Richard Phillips had tried to escape from his captors.

The escape attempt had presented an early rescue opportunity for the military. But the Navy had no warning that Phillips was going to attempt to flee.

>>>>>Although a military special operations team had been mobilized, it had not yet arrived, and the Navy had no way to capitalize on Phillips’ gumption.<<<<<<

Instead, the incident underscored the danger Phillips was in as the pirates fired their AK-47s at him as he tried to swim away, then beat him after dragging him back aboard the boat.

Dirtboy, I think we were on the correct analysis.

[kabar]

"If the goal was just to kill these guys, there were opportunities where we could have shot them," the senior official said. "This was not the outcome we wanted. We wanted those three guys to give themselves up."

The money quote. Obama was trying to limit the use of force with his ROEs. And he had to expand the order after Philips tried to escape. I am sure now that the last thing Obama wanted was for the "pirates" to be killed. He was treating this all along as a domestic hostage taking incident rather than a violation of international law. We have the right to use lethal force against pirates. No need for an ROE.