Posted on 04/12/2009 6:37:16 AM PDT by libstripper
This is bad news : “The American sea captain held hostage by Somali pirates tried to escape Friday and was recaptured, a U.S. official said, with no action from the U.S. Navy destroyer monitoring the situation from nearby in the Indian Ocean.”
But why didn’t the Navy act? Well, they are “waiting out the pirates.” Perhaps that will work. Nevertheless it is a bit unsettling to hear the Navy explain, “Our job is to make sure the negotiations can continue.” Perhaps they are coyly setting up a rescue effort.
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
To reply to one of the comments - while I haven't heard what they want nor do I much care, if they do want money then several days ago we should have sent over a sack of fake bills, rescued the captain, and blown the bad guys out of the water. I also don't care what the rest of the world would think, though the vast majority would have applauded the US (which would have been the first time since January).
Okay, I ain’t there and I ain’t the expert but I have served on a naval vessel at sea. Someone who knows please explain why we can’t have Seals in the water around that lifeboat and our best Marine snipers in place on the ship ready to annihilate three lousy Muslim pirates? It would seem that anyone caught between Navy Seals and Marine snipers would have a life expectancy of about one second. Please, is there someone on this forum who is qualified to comment?
Exactly what do you think the Navy can do about this hostage standoff?? I think far too many people are getting their exercise by jumping to conclusions on this.
I hear a lot of criticism about what the Navy is or isn’t doing about this standoof, but these comments are not from anyone who is on the scene, or who has a good grasp of exactly what the problems are on scene. I wonder if many of the commentators on this even have a clue about what Command at sea really entails, much less how to effectively end this standoff without killing the guy we are trying to save.
Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just sneak up on a lifeboat at sea with a destroyer. Neither do we have a submarine loaded with Navy Seals that can reach the Horn of Africa overnight and somehow capture this lifeboat in some sort of daring raid. I think many people have no clue about how difficult an operation like this is on the open ocean, miles from any help.
Many folks talk about this being the second Carter Administration, and seem busy trying to push Obama into a Jimmy Carter-like “Desert One” rescue attempt of some sort. The fact is that there is no simple way to capture that small boat without risking the life of the hostage, so I wonder what some people really expect.
Again, this is one of the most remote places on the planet, and that is what enables these pirates to raid at will. It’s easy to sit here at home on Easter morning and play armchair quarterback, but none of us are on the scene, and we only know what the media is telling us.
On a bad day, after having a lobotomy, that Navy Captain still had 10x the IQ of the Obamaloon. Had the Loon-in-Chief allowed this Captain to actually do something, this would have been resolved promptly.
There are now words for the contempt that I have for the Loon and his idiot assistants. Thought Bush was dumb? Heh! The loon is sooooo far below Bush that we’ve gotta use scientific notation to measure it.
The eight thousand mile screwdriver is having trouble engaging the slot in the screw. The problem should be handled locally. Give the lads a little responsibility and they’ll amaze you with their resourcefulness. Obama has never done anything by himself, and he’s arranged it so that nothing will get done.
Makes one wonder what our president owes “Al-Shabab” in return for campaign contributions.
Obambi is scared spitless of failure so he is locked up in the inaction mode, reasoning if he does nothing he cannot be blamed for making the wrong decision, But he has already lost this battle because due to his inaction he is viewed as indecisive and weak by our enemies. Basically the moron has once again voted “present”
The Navy is obeying orders
The FBI has been placed in charge
The plan is coming from the White House and the plan is to pay off the Pirates an kiss their ass as they leave.
You don’t think we’ve got at least one submarine in the area?
You think that SEALs can’t jump out of a transport plane with whatever gear they deem necessary to at least keep this life boat away from shore if not pull something else out of their sizable bag of tricks?
Look, I know the whole “sniper” idea won’t work because the lifeboat is covered. But there are plenty of other capabilities that aren’t being used.
Obama: Bold spending. Timid defending.
There’s a tag line!
““waiting out the pirates.”
Why not just kill them real quick? Why aren’t the pirates already dead?
If I was POTUS,..........
My preference is a Tripoli Strategy:
Get my guy back
Kill the perpetrators
March on whatever the Capital of Somali is
Blow some stuff up, kill some ugly people
leave a letter telling leave our people alone or we will be back.
Of course they can continue their Jack Sparrow antics with any other country, except the Canadians, and I won't care. It’s their problem.
We have for 200 solve everyone else’s problem and it is time they stand on their own two feet and deal with their own problems.
The French put a good foot forward the other day.
Still, the best strategy would be march, burn, kill and put on notice.
#1:===
[We have too many policy makers and not enough decision makers running things.]
#2:
That is the very reason Senators make poor executives — they are from the deliberative body.They deliberate.
They bloviate.
They speechify.
The only thing they really ‘do’ is cast a vote. They don’t even have to read what they are voting on.
It is like sneaking up on a floating refrigerator. What is your plan grenade? Shoot some guys on a floating tub? You can't really see into these things through the portals and they can be easily covered with material inside the boat. How do you snipe them?
Boarding would not be easy. The things are made of fiberglass. They would hear the tiniest thud, thud, thud, from a footstep.
I guess you could drill a hole and flood the boat with an agent to put everyone to sleep but how realistic is that?
let them drift to wherever then kill them as they deboard.
They SEALS have faster underwater tools that might enable them to land before the skinnies. If they can then blam and shamwow... you watchin’ me cameraman. Look, this .308 shot from a 700 series Remington, I mean I pull the trigger and people 800 yards from my position are dropping like flies. You can't do that with a French soldier or a Kalashnikov.
Only a Marine trained SEAL can do this, your gonna love the he works and your life will be happier.
I would send 5 snipers, give common link for fire control and put twenty SEAL’s at the waters edge and let them have some fun. they would of course be supported by 3 drones with Hellfire.
Then our boys can reach the Captain saying “I am a United States SEAL, We are here to rescue you. Follow our command and we will take you home.”
It would be weird if after that the skinnies families were lost to some random gunfire and the perpetrators were never found.
That would be my strategy.
*Wow, I see the problem now. We need the POTUS to peronally handle even the smallest little problem that pops up in the world. *
He’s too busy picking out a f*cking dog and having Easter brunch with homosexuals. Sorry, hostages have to go it alone.
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