Posted on 04/13/2009 7:00:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama vowed Monday to work with US allies to "halt the rise of piracy" off Somalia's coast, as the Pentagon warned there was no purely military solution to the seaborne scourge.
...
"I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region," Obama said at an event designed to highlight investments in transportation infrastructure.
"To achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes."
His remarks were his first in public on the rescue of Maersk Alabama cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips, held hostage aboard a lifeboat adrift off Somalia's coast in a harrowing five-day standoff.
"His safety has been our principal concern, and I know this came as a welcome relief to his family and his crew," said Obama, who telephoned the skipper's wife on Easter Sunday.
US officials moved to cobble together a fresh strategy for battling piracy, reaching out to other capitals, mulling ways to prosecute captured pirates like the lone survivor among the captain's captors and assessing the prospects for stabilizing Somalia and drying up the flow of piracy recruits.
"There is no purely military solution," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a group of 30 students and faculty members at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, in remarks first reported by a military news service.
"I am confident we will be spending a lot of time in the situation room over the next few weeks trying to figure out what in the world to do about this problem," ..
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
There is, actually. Destroy the havens. That's going to be awfully difficult on the innocent people who lived there before the pirates showed up, and maybe we might want to think long and hard before we do it, but that is a military solution. A feasible one.
Sink every one of their motherships ASAP.
Oh, and simultaneously carpet bomb and napalm the Somali coastline where the hotbed nests are located.
That ought’a do it.
That’s right! Any pirate’n to be done around here, my administration will do it!
Showin’ off my new tag line. Don’t worry...I’ll be back on the chocolate soon enough, LOL!
The real pirates are now in control of the three branches of our national government.
The USA seems to have the matter well in hand already, why is Obama committing to fight the European allies’ battles for them?
Would that be all those "partners" who helped us out this time?
Hmmm?
Yeah, boy! It took him 5 days NOT to make a decision over rescuing Capt Phillips. He’s going “to work” to eliminate piracy. Yeah, boy! He’s all mouth and no action.
Well, there you go. If you lose your job, health benefits, unemployment runs out, and you have absolutely zero, then arm up and start pirating. The Government will be much more sympathetic to you.
Yeah the same partners who told him to buzz off after his European tour.
I can tell you one thing if they are frightened to return them to their own country for fear of torture, they are waaaaay too soft.
When the land bases are attacked and the ships are sunk, then I will believe that someone actually intends to do something.
Just pass an assault weapons ban in Somalia, that’ll do it.
> Obama vowed Monday to work with US allies
Why do we have to work with anyone?
America has the sovern right to protect itself, its citizens and its interests without consulting with or depending upon any foreign power.
The pirates are often armed with fully automatic AK-47’s and RPGs. The media never even blinks. And they express sympathy for them.
Obama doesn't have a chance with these pukes. He's the wrong colors! They deal only with black men and brown men.
Yeah, I’m sure the pirates are scared to death of Obama and the UN....
What an incompetent weasel of a flower child. Does this boob know the first thing about "military solutions"?
Good grief!
Gates is a damn fool.
A DAMN FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!
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