Obama and the Pirates

Joe
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Haven’t you heard? Republicans say President Obama had nothing to do with it and that he was “micromanaging” the situation. Newt Gingrich twittered all day Saturday criticizing President Obama’s approach of actually sending an FBI negotiating team. Then after the Captain was rescued he didn’t tweet a single word about it. If you are expecting them to give him ANY credit for the success of the operation I think you are going to be sorely dissappointed.

Anybody who regards Gingrich as a worthwhile source about anything Obama-related is just a panderer, aiming to stir controversy ra

Anybody who regards Gingrich as a worthwhile source about anything Obama-related is just a panderer, aiming to stir controversy rather than enlighten (Sorry – don’t know which keystroke sent out the partial).

If President Obama manages to silence Newt Gingrich, its a pretty good day. Also how can he have nothing to do with it and be “micromanaging ” the situation you would think these would be mutually exclusive.

philippe
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These are the same people that say government has never created a job who are now claiming that President Obama is cutting jobs by cutting certain military programs. Its what they do.

As it stands, our socialist, pacifist, crypto-Muslim President has bagged three terrorist in the most dramatic fashion and saved a Captain.

I realize, of course, that you are being ironic but the conflation of all threats and bad things into threats of “terrorism” is a really pernicious trend. Unlike the other sorts of hyperbole ou use in this statement, the whole “terrorism everywhere all the time” meme is one that far too many “serious” people take seriously.

.and what can one say about the SEAL sharpshooters–firing from a bobbing ship at a bobbing dinghy and recording three headshots?
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I can say I don’t believe that’s how it happened….(mostly because destroyers don’t “bob”, and the lifeboat was being towed by the destroyer, meaning that its motion was not at the mercy of the seas…)
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Actually pirates and terrorists have one rather important trait in common. The key is that they are not State actors and they don’t impart guilt upon their neighbors and fellow countrymen by their presence. Otherwise we could simply declare war on their host country and all our problems will magically go away…..

“As it stands, our socialist, pacifist, crypto-Muslim President has bagged three terrorist.”
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So now pirates are terrorist. And lets not put in context on how these specific present day pirates (terrorist) came to be. Who they are. Or how long they have been been existance. Or that is was just a matter of time before this happen to an American flagged ship. Or the fact that there should have been action taken a long time ago to force shippers to pay for and provide their own protection.

Joe: Obama spoiled the Wingnut Brigade’s Easter Lament by long distance oversight without the micromanagement so beloved of those who believe in less government. No problem: they will find some way to play down his role. So much of our discourse rides on getting things right without making any allowances for mistakes. It is not natural, but in Wingnutdom the Artificial Indignation Pot is perpetually on the boil.

………….Also how can he have nothing to do with it and be “micromanaging ” the situation you would think these would be mutually exclusive.
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It’s not a contradiction if you are a Conservative. Anybody to the left of Joe McCarthy is a dirty hippie. You can say anything about someone who is “anti-American”
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When the Mark Foley scandal was unfolding, GOP Reps Eric Cantor and Patrick McHenry went on the public airwaves and blamed Democrats in Congress for not catching Republican Foley interacting with male House pages. The fact that the GOP controlled the House and the oversight committee on pages, was not important. Foley’s actions had to be caused by a problem on the Democratic side of the aisle.
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Ads for Ann Coulter’s book “Guilty” state that Liberals claim the role of victims while attacking Conservative viewpoints. Coulter was really writing about the mindset of the modern GOP in attacking Liberals.
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The success of the Naval mission was all a Leftist plot by Obama.

allastair makes a good point. These pirates aren’t there to terrorize, they are there for money plain and simple. They aren’t trying to scare people away nor putting videos up of them killing or torturing victims. Dundeweller put up a link last night from vanityfair where they recounted a recent pirate hijacking and the pirates themselves say they don’t want anything but money. Terrorists have no need for such. If thats the case then every bank robber is a terrorist, every kidnapper is a terrorist, every extortionist is a terrorist. It is important to keep perspective on these things less all of a sudden fighting pirates becomes another run in “the war on terror”.

I am sure while Obama was praying on Sunday, the good Lord moved him to finally take action in this specific case. .
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Why did it take so long to do something, that is my only question?

pluk-Have you ever been on a destroyer at sea?

Some people seem to think that Naval vessels move at lightspeed. I blame comic books.

Kinda on kinda off topic from Fareed Zakariya on the cuts to different defense programs by Sec Gates
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/193487
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If you’re wondering where to come down on the Gates plan, here’s a simple guide: John McCain, the most thoughtful, reform-minded legislator on military issues, “strongly supports” it. Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe—who has compared the EPA to the Gestapo, Carol Browner to Tokyo Rose and environmentalists to the Third Reich—warns that it will lead to the “disarming of America.” You choose.

I only have one thing to say, thank god rusty you’re not in any part of law enforcement…

This is actually quite funny…”Obama’s Real Panic: No Way to Blame W. for Pirates Crisis!”
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http://www.americanconservativedaily.com/2009/04/obamas-real-panic-no-way-to-blame-w-for-pirates-crisis/

These guys are so desperate, they are even going after the first dog. Newt is saying the public’s interest in Bo is “fairly stupid” and Brit Hume complains that it’s a “girly” dog. They swing, they miss.

Hmm, actually you could blame W, focusing so much of our military and foreign policy exclusively on Iraq for so long, he never got around to dealing with Somalia…not enough terrorists or oil. I mean priorities, right rusty.

Sheesh….

Wasn’t Somalia Clinton’s baby, ymmartin? I seem to remember something about Black Hawk Down for some reason today. Hmmmmmm

and then nothing from the GOP to actual deal with it, right rusty…i mean, we know how scared Bush was of Somalians…hooo the boogyman god you crack me up.

[...] ended well for the Americans and that’s especially good news for the Obama Administration, writes Time’s Joe Klein. “It’s better to be lucky than good. It’s even better to be lucky and good. One can [...]

Does anybody really remember what happened after black hawk down? I do. We stayed for another six months until we could hand over the reigns to the UN. Funny how that party never seems to make it into the discussion when certain folks talk about President Clinton.

While a lot of the righty reaction is way uncalled for, most of it is in anticipation to lines like this one…
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As it stands, our socialist, pacifist, crypto-Muslim President has bagged three terrorist in the most dramatic fashion and saved a Captain.
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For crying out loud, I thought some people were nuts for saying that the media was going to make it seem like Obama shot the terrorists himself.
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He didn’t “bag” anyone, Klein. He deserves commendation for handling this situation the right way, by keeping out of the way. The credit belongs to the operators on the destroyer and your superfluous gibberish is disgusting.

Yes SG, we stayed another six months – doing pretty much nothing – until we could hand the matter to the UN – which does even less than nothing.
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There’s a great book called “The Road to Unafraid” by Jeff Struecker, a Ranger who took point on several of the convoys in and out of the city, that details the reaction of the troops on the ground pretty well.

Rusty I leave you with this quote by Steven Weber:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-weber/gop-rip_b_185447.html

“So there it stands: a naked, pigeon-chested old man, random strands of white hair on its boney shoulders; its swollen-knuckled hands clasped over its dead genitals, looking at once forlorn and menacing, shivering with self-loathing and xenophobia, raging pathetically at its timely and appropriate defeat at the hands of Reason.

Ladies and gentlemen: The Republican Party.

With every passing day, the people who stubbornly, maddeningly cling to an obsolete ideal and who stand in the way of the cultural advancement of this country, this America, spew the base reality of their caustic ideology into the air.

The Republican Party is like a dying tyrant, mad with syphilis, ironically like that very Stalin they would accuse their enemies of associating with.”

Yoshi
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What was our mission in Somalia? Did we accomplish it?

Yoshi
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Its great that you take Joe to task for saying President Obama bagged three terrorists. I would just ask will you do the same the next time a conservative says Bush kept us safe?

“As it stands, our socialist, pacifist, crypto-Muslim President has bagged three terrorist in the most dramatic fashion and saved a Captain. Congratulations to all concerned–and let’s hope that the good luck continues to roll.”
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That has to be self-parody, no?

rusty has openly stated that he wants the US to fail, since the country is not following his dictates. rusty wanted the mission to end badly.
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rusty links to a wingnut satirical blog that he finds funny. Satire should have a basis in reality, which the linked blog does not.Three pirates are dead. One pirate is captured. The link talks nonsense about Obama laying blame on the inept GW Bush.
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rusty and his wingnut friends wish for bad outcomes for the country. How does one define a traitor?

Note to my fellow troll feeders. Anytime you find yourself defending Bill Clinton, you’ve already been sucked in. What Bill Clinton may or may not have done is irrelevant to any curent discussion. This of course explains handily why trolls are constantly bringing him up. Classic misdirection.

“…and recording three headshots…”
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What is this, Counterstrike?
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And I agree that Obama didn’t bag anything, but he did do what you would expect from a leader — stay attentive, stay informed, and make informed decisions. If only Bush had done this during Katrina, Iraq, and Afghanistan, his presidency might have ended differently.

SG, we were there to stabilize Somalia and stop the wholesale destruction, and no, we certainly did not accomplish it.

Our socialistic Islamic fascist in the White House took down the big bad Muslim pirates and actually showed some serious national security savvy/skill (more so than Bush ever showed)? No, it can’t be true…

http://www.political-buzz.com/

My first reaction was a variant on “America – f**k yeah!” just like Iklé in the Post. Let’s go all Keyser Soze on them!
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Then I remembered how effective the significant probability of sudden violent death has been in ending the drug trade in Mexico and, increasingly, here at home.

the obama administration does not use the phrase war on terror because words matter and that sort of linguistic bellicosity did nothing to help our cause. lumping in stone-cold criminals with fanatics who wish to rid the world of certain humanity opens the door to more needless us vs them interpretation, no? pirates are fucking pirates and this is an international policing issue rather than just a united states issue.

yoshi
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Simply put, that was not the mission in Somalia, at least not under Clinton.
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http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/Somalia93/Somalia93.html
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http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=52286
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Funny but I bet a lot of people didn’t even realize it was George H W Bush who first sent the troops over into Somalia. Memory holes and all that.

Powerline’s take:
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http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/04/023317.php
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I wonder, too, if the “imminent danger” standard was met. Who knows? Nice that this situation is done. Hopefully, these clowns will realize that American-flagged vessels aren’t to be messed with.

SG, I give Bush the same credit for his good decisions as I gave Obama – for executing orders that led to fortunate outcomes. The credit for accomplishing the mission, however, belongs to our well-trained, disciplined, and courageous military. I would not credit Bush for stopping the liquid-explosives airline plot directly, for example, any more than I would credit Obama for the termination of a similar attempted plot under his watch.
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I will say this, though. The breakdown is of course complex, but Bush did lead America to modernize its way of thinking and dealing with terrorism. Were there missteps and mistakes along the way? Certainly. But some of the credit must go to him for acting with respect to Afghanistan after 9/11, for instance.

Yoshi
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How can you grant Bush respect when Richard Clarke was already pushing him to make changes BEFORE 9-11 precisely because of the threat of terrorism specifically from al-qaeda. Well I take it back, you have the right to give him whatever you wish. I however, while thankful for the response at least initially after 9-11, am still not giving him a pass on not paying attention to Clarke before hand.

Presidencies are, sadly, built or crippled on such quirks of fate.
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… because the media sucks at reporting the news.
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It’s not clear to me that Pres. Obama deserves much credit/blame for this. Of of course, charlatans and intellectual midgets like Newt Gingrich said that Obama was messing everything up, until it went well, at which point they denied he had any role whatsoever. Pirates at sea doesn’t call for as much a presidential role as, say, the China crisis around this time in 2001. (Which I thought Pres. Bush handled pretty well, FWIW).

SG, we were there to stabilize Somalia and stop the wholesale destruction, and no, we certainly did not accomplish it.
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UNOSOM II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Operation_in_Somalia_II) was not just American troops. UNOSOM II did fail, but that cannot be attributed to Clinton. What you are referring to is the search for Aidid, spearheaded mostly by US special operations forces, which led to the battle of Mogadishu that is has been immortalized by Black Hawk Down.
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And no we never captured Aidid.
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SG:
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Operations under George H W Bush were successful, and he proposed those operations after the UN’s first attempt, UNOSOM I failed. George H W Bush authorized UNITAF, and UNITAF’s original mandate was to use “all necessary means” to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid in accordance to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter,[1] and is regarded as a success.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Restore_Hope
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Clinton was president during the majority of the time UNITAF was in Somalia, but the operation was planned under G HW Bush.

SG, from your link:
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In March 1993 the U.N. officially took over the operation, naming this mission UNOSOM – II. The objective of this mission was to promote “nation building” within Somalia. One main target was to disarm the Somali people. UNOSOM – II stressed restoring law and order, improving the infrastructure, and assisting the people with setting up a representative government.
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President Clinton supported the U.N. mandate and ordered the number of U.S. troops in Somalia reduced, to be replaced by U.N. troops.
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snip
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Two weeks later, six more U.S. soldiers were wounded. It was at this point that Task Force Ranger was deployed to Somalia.
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Clearly, although this wasn’t a unilateral effort by the US, we were there in support of their mission to stabilize Somalia – in fact, “disarm” the Somalians. In fact, we were deploying more support to Somalia after the reduction of Marine Corps personnel that were originally in Somalia. So I disagree with you – stabilization was the mission.
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BTW, small quibble with your source – Delta and Rangers are different.

Nathan, I understand what you mean in assigning greater responsibility. The search for Aidid, however, was in support of the UN mandate to nation build, and we did fail in that mission.

[...] Time’s Joe Klein Praises Obama’s ‘Crisp’ Handling of Otherwise Non-existent Pirate ‘Threat’ Posted by Internet Guru April 13, 2009 internet marketing President Barack Obama was "crisp and decisive" but also lucky in his handling of the Maersk Alabama hostage crisis, exults Time magazine’s Joe Klein [depicted in NewsBusters screen cap/file photo at right] in an April 13 Swampland blog post. [...]

Yoshi
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Another source
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http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/restore_hope.htm
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We went after Aidid not to prop up Somalia but because he was ordering attacks on our and the UN troops there. It was the UN mission to try to prop up Somalia. Not ours.

And you guys are debating whether or not a leader deserves credit when things go right. You can ask this question about any leader. Does a CEO deserve all the credit when a company is doing well?
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What about when things go wrong? Does a CEO deserve all the blame when things go wrong?
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Leaders theorize and strategize, and when those plans end up taking us in the wrong direction, the leader deserves most of the blame. But when those plans take us in the right direction, he deserves a lot of the credit as well, even though many people are responsible for effectively implementing the strategy and failure would surely have resulted without them.
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General Petraeus received a vast amount of credit for his strategy, and rightfully so. If Obama was the one planning and approving the operations, shouldn’t he get credit as well?

SG:
The events leading up to 9/11 are quite complex, and retroactive attacks on Bush or Clinton’s handling of the buildup miss the greater failure. As I recall, Clarke makes a habit of blaming himself and his community constantly for letting 9/11 happen.
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The intelligence system and their failure to share data with each other is at the crux of the failure.

SG, from your link:
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The US-led coalition approved by the Security Council in December 1992 had a mandate of protecting humanitarian operations and creating a secure environment for eventual political reconciliation.
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Stabilizing and securing are two words not too terribly different from one another.

Somalia conflict chronology http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ambush/etc/cron.html :

“With only weeks left in his term as president, George Bush responds to the UN request, proposing that US combat troops lead an international UN force to secure the environment for relief operations. On December 5, the UN accepts his offer, and Bush orders 25,000 US troops into Somalia. On December 9th, the first US Marines land on the beach.”
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It was so nice of lame-duck President Bush 41 to begin a new military engagement overseas 4 weeks after his thorough re-election defeat and 6 weeks before turning the reins of government over to the man who defeated him.
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It seems only fair that Mr. Clinton should shoulder all of the blame for everything that happened in Somalia because, after all, it was his idea… wait, it wasn’t? Oh nevermind.
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And it was Congressional Republicans who forced him to withdraw in haste? No way!? Oh, wait, it was? And the charge was led by none other than John Sydney McCain III?? Really?!
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“There is no reason for the United States of America to remain in Somalia. The American people want them home, I believe the majority of Congress wants them home, and to set an artificial date of March 31 or even February 1, in my view, is not acceptable. The criteria should be to bring them home as rapidly and safely as possible, an evolution which I think could be completed in a matter of weeks…
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We suffered a terrible tragedy in Beirut, Mr. President; 240 young marines lost their lives, but we got out. Now is the time for us to get out of Somalia as rapidly and as promptly and as safely as possible.” John McCain, 10-19-93 http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/republicans-and-congress-war-powers.html
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Could that position that Mr. McCain so passionately advocated be referred to as “cut and run?”

Yoshi
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On 9-11 I am not talking about intelligence failures, what I am talking about is Richard Clarke wanting to take the fight to al qaeda preemptively and not being taken seriously. Yeah there were huge puckups in terms of missing the signs that an attack was coming but it was Clarke that convinced Clinton to try to get bin Ladin right before he left office and he was banging the same drum to no avail to Bush when he got in. I don’t know if you have read it but if you haven’t read “Against All Enemies” I strongly suggest you do. Clarke isn’t some left wing peace guy. He served under 3 Republican Presidents. He just tells it like it was in the book and if you read it I think you will see where I am coming from. It also pissed me off that after the book came out Bush administration tried to smear him so as to discredit him even though he was maybe the person who most publicly held himself to account for what happened on 9-11.

The search for Aidid was a small component of the overall goal of restoring order and stability to Somalia (which was the goal of UNOSOM II, not the US troops specifically).
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Aidid was attacking the UN troops. US special operations forces were authorized under the UN mandate to provide rapid response to any threats to UNOSOM II, but not engage in nation building. The hunt for Aidid was not the responsibility of US troops alone, but that of the entire UNOSOM II contingent, and it was UNOSOM II that absolutely failed to capture Aidid in the beginning. In fact, much of the hunt caused collateral damage to civilians and arguably made things worse by turning much of the populace against the UN troops.
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Only after four American soldiers were killed during the hunt did Clinton authorize to send Rangers and Delta Force to exclusively search for Aidid. This led to the battle of Mogadishu, but by then the goal of UNOSOM II was probably already out of reach.

[...] President Barack Obama was "crisp and decisive" but also lucky in his handling of the Maersk Alabama hostage crisis, exults Time magazine’s Joe Klein [depicted in NewsBusters screen cap/file photo at right] in an April 13 Swampland blog post. [...]

SG:
I don’t know a lot about our efforts against al-Qaeda before 9/11, so thanks for the recommendation. WRT Bush, that sounds about right with what I know of his character pre-9/11 – candidate Bush denounced nation building. That event really changed him.
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Nathan:
I hope you’re not saying that Obama was the one planning this operation. Approval of the ROE, I believe, was in his court. But for obvious reasons, he wasn’t there.

I think there is no comparison between the search for Aidid and the rescue of the pirates.
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All you RW’ers are being disengenuous using that tiresome ‘blame Clinton’ strategy in order to divert attention from your own former Administrations’ ineptness in nearly every arena.
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Yoshi, you too are disengenuous because as it has come down, Obama twice gave approval for lethal force to be used. He gave his approval Friday and again, on Saturday. He did his part and allowed the Navy to do their work. This is called ‘management’ and he deserves his share of the credit. Most of course goes to the Navy SEALs, but bear in mind that none of them move a muscle if the averarching approval is not given by the C-in-C.
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Rusty is just ridiculous. The judicious handling of the situation was perfectly handled – a hostage situation was handled by expert and coordinated strategies involving the Captain, who knew what to do, and the Naval personnel, who were, while not in commucation with him, knew what he was going to do.
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You right wingers need to show support for America.

53:
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He did his part and allowed the Navy to do their work.
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I said he stayed out of the way and he deserves commendation for that. Semantics.
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I guess we started talking about Somalia because of Rusty, but hey, we’re talking about it.

spob:
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Hopefully, these clowns will realize that American-flagged vessels aren’t to be messed with.
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Exactly.

Yoshi-
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He could certainly have said no. And if he said no and the Pirates took the man ashore and disappeared, Obama would certainly be taking the blame for it. He should at least garner an equivalent amount of praise for saying yes.
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And yes he plans things at the top level. He doesn’t plan the immediate details but he provides the direction. It was his decision to send negotiators, it was his decision to send the team that rescued the captain, and it was his decision to give the approval to engage.

This is the exact same debate that Obama had with John McCain about strategy vs. tactics. The president sets the strategy. The people below the president decide which tactics will best get you where the strategy says you need to be.

Predictably, Joe Klein declares that the effeminate, clueless socialist “bagged three terrorist[s] in the most dramatic fashion and saved a Captain.”

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Indeed. The United States Navy would be nothing against four Somali clowns in a dinghy without the inspirational leadership of the fearless community organizer. Furthermore, the community organizer’s august military expertise was critical in preparing and executing the plan.

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BTW, did the thoroughly unqualified, terrorist fraternizing, communitiy organizer get the approval from a lawless, federal so-called “judge” (see Ginsberg, Stevens, Breyer, Souter, Kennedy, anyone on the 9th Circuit, anyone appointed by Peanut Carter or Boy Clinton) to have the United States Navy kill the three Somali clowns in order to protect the Somalis’ “due process rights”, “habeus corpus rights”, other “U.S. Constitutional rights” and “international” so-called “human rights”?

These pirates aren’t there to terrorize, they are there for money plain and simple.
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sgw,
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Does this make them the Somali equivalent of our present banking and investment heads?

afguy
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I started to make that analagy but I didn’t want to be accused of “populist rage” lol

We should be glad this went off well. Now the wingnut warriors, using their “lethal” keyboards will show us how Pres Obama had nothing to do with the successful outcome. After all the Limbogistas pray for his “failure”. So, when he succeeds in doing something right (monitoring from a distance while letting the forces work things out) the warriors here at home are apoplectic.

Somalia has been a mess for years and if it can’t get its act together it will continue to be a running sore.

Nathan:
For the reasons you give in your post, saying “no” would be truly exemplary idiocy. As for the rest of your post, I know he approved the ROE, but if you could source the other details that would be nice.

Yoshi:
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“He deserves commendation for handling this situation the right way, by keeping out of the way. The credit belongs to the operators on the destroyer…”
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I won’t engage in semantics here, but some credit also belongs to Obama for making the right decisions at the right time. I would like to hear you specifically say so, rather than this left handed disengenousness.
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As for the discussion about BHD Somalia, I wasn’t even suggesting that anyone stop discussing it! I mentioned that trying to blame Clinton for the situation in Somalia is disengenuous.
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Please re-read my comment.

One of the things everyones been avoiding is how to demotivate the pirates in the first place. It’s nice that suddenly they realize that there might be a downside price to be paid but until this point they had apparently been successfully collecting ransoms from all over the globe.

Must see video.
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http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001151/

I can only speculate, as I don’t know where those Naval forces are right now, but I think that Obama isn’t done here.
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Demotivating the pirates would involve making it too risky for them to operate. One of the ways to do that is to have some sort of an agreement among the nations represented by the flags under which ships sail come to an agreement on what, when, and where to use force.
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That way, we don’t have the French looking exclusively after French ships, the Chinese looking after their own, etc etc etc.

Actually, Yoshi, I’ll apologize and withdraw my comment. You did indeed give him credit.

“One of the things everyones been avoiding is how to demotivate the pirates in the first place. It’s nice that suddenly they realize that there might be a downside price to be paid but until this point they had apparently been successfully collecting ransoms from all over the globe.”
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The French made then pay as well.
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Obama didn’t cover himself in glory, but didn’t screw it up either. He merely reiterated SOP. We’ll see how he deals with the pirate issue in the future. One of the core missions of the US Navy is to ensure freedom of navigation. There is some work to be done here.

” ..what can one say about … firing from a bobbing ship at a bobbing dinghy and recording three headshots ..”
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It makes a thrill run down your spine, doesn’t it militant JK?

What can one say?

Thousands upon thousands of them have been recorded – on (mostly innocent) Iraqi ..

“Republicans Making Fools of Themselves. What a sorry run.”
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Yes, a long, sorry run. Where have you been for the past fifteen years?

Actually, that was my point spob. The fact that Obama didn’t cover himself in glory and the fact that he didn’t screw it up says a lot.
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There is no ‘SOP’ for the C-in-C (at least not in that sense) as we would never see differences in behavior from one admin to the next.
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My point is more that if we are closer to a French flag ship in trouble, we would take action, and if an American flag vessel were in trouble, the Chinese would act appropriately on their end.
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Sort of like a zone defense rather than man-to-man. A much more effective strategy.

John Bolton wants another “coalition of the willing”. Seriously.
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Time to explain…
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The actual operation was conducted by the Navy, and they deserve the credit for executing it.
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Obama approved the use of force in imminent danger that made the operation possible, and credit goes to him for that as well.
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So aggregating all the efforts that were made together, the lion’s share of the credit goes to the people on the destroyer, but Obama also deserves credit (or commendation) for giving the ROE and letting qualified people do their job.
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Now we can stop hashing out the difference between “commendation” and “credit,” as if one of those is negative.

Oops, did not see your post, 53…

The SOP (actually ROE) would have permitted American forces to shoot to prevent the murder of an American on high seas. So Obama really doesn’t get a lot of credit for reiterating that principle. I simply give him an Incomplete. Navy SEALs bailed out the country here because this could have deteriorated into a complete mess.
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I don’t think the Chinese have the capability to deal with a captured ship. So that’s a moot point. And American forces would have the ability (if Obama allows it) to simply prevent an attack on a merchant vessel of a different flag.
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Of course, this shooting makes the fates of the captives from other countries less certain, which is the point of this MSNBC article.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30178013
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Pirates should be hanged at sea. Period.

Here’s Mark Steyn’s take:
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http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWQwNTE2OWM2YjEwMWQzNTM4OTMzZGVhOWM0NDUxOGQ=&w=MQ==

Another interesting take:
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http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2009/04/somalian-pirate-captured-by-us-navy-actually-could-face-death-sentence-under-us-hostagetaking-law.html

Spob, sometimes, you just got to be proud to be an American. This is one of those times. This country had the best of the best available to protect innocent life, and the chain of command worked perfectly in order to give them the opportunity to protect that life in this case.
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On the subject of how to deal with piracy, this was a great comment posted at HotAir:
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CORPORATE OWNER: Well here you go, here’s my ship, big as as an aircraft carrier, worth $300,000,000 bucks. I trust you to take good care of her.

SHIP’S CAPTAIN: Thank you sir, we won’t let you down. We’re professionals.

CORPORATE OWNER: Oh and here’s my $20,000,000 worth of cargo. I know I can trust you to see that it safely reaches it’s destination.

SHIP’S CAPTAIN: We’ll do our best.

CORPORATE OWNER: I guess that about covers it. Was there anything else?

SHIP’S CAPTAIN: Well now that I think of it, there’s been some pirate attacks in the area we’ll be sailing through. It would look kind of ridiculous of a ship this size with this many crew members was so totally unarmed they fell prey to a small tug boat of a handful of guys waving around AK-47’s. Do you think we could have some guns to defend ourselves and your $300 million dollar ship and $20 million dollar cargo with?

CORPORATE OWNER: What are you, a moron? You think I trust your judgment THAT much? Out of the question. The lawyers and the insurance people would have a melt down.

SHIP’S CAPTAIN: Uhm, so you’ll trust me with $320,000,000 million dollars of your stuff, but not with a gun?

CORPORATE OWNER: Don’t you have a schedule to keep?

“sometimes you just got to be proud to be an American” . . . .
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Unlike Michelle Obama, I am, always have been and always will be, proud to be an American.

” … a French flag ship in trouble, we would take action, and if an American flag vessel were in trouble, the Chinese would act appropriately on their end. Sort of like a zone defense ..”

And if a USA ship is in trouble with the Chinese?

And if a Zimbabwean flag ship was in trouble – with the UK?

How about a Cuban or Colombian ship in trouble with the USA?

Is that a statement on (non-ideological) hegemony – a new imperialism – against the ‘third’ world?
[And that a trading ship must be considered, explicitly, to fly its mother country's flag and to be an extension of its mother country's imperial posture? What a question! Of course we invade countries to plunder their resources that must be shipped out by our maritime fleet .. Hence the use of our military to safeguard the maritime routes. Else why would the invasions and genocide be necessary?]

Unlike Michelle Obama, I am, always have been and always will be, proud to be an American.
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Which help explain your willingness to turn a blind eye to torture and your impassioned defense of the people who rationalized it even to the point of disgusting John Ashcroft and Jack Goldsmith.

Pluck says “I can say I don’t believe that’s how it happened….(mostly because destroyers don’t “bob”, and the lifeboat was being towed by the destroyer, meaning that its motion was not at the mercy of the seas…)”

When were you last on a DD. It may not bob, but I can tell you that a DD yaws, and pitches and that a life boat in tow will bob.

You try shooting under those conditions.
_

Haven’t you heard? Despite the orgasmic response of the American media, it appears that Mr Obama’s “decisive order to shoot” extended to no more than–having been regularly updated on the Maersk Alabama situation after it was atacked on Wednesday–giving US forces (on Saturday) the “authority ‘to engage in potential emergency actions,’ [according to] an administration official” (see Sydney [Australia]Morning Tribune, April 13, 2009). It simply is not true that Mr Obama gave the order to fire–nor should he have. That is a job for people with far more military acumen than his. His participation here was a limited one: “you have the authority to engage the enemy.”

That act was nothing more than what should be demanded of any civilian Commander in Chief of the American military, i.e., give the professionals the general authority to take decisive action. There is nothing in any media report to support the mistaken belief that Mr Obama was actively engaged in exercising the discretion to fire or that he personally gave the order to fire. Do not make more of his conduct here–or confuse it with the decisive act itself. The heroes here–as in most cases involving armed conflict against an enemy–are the individual Maersk and US Navy personnel. The decisive actions here were those of the senior officers who set up the operation and of the young Lieutenant who gave the order to fire.
Please, Mr Klein, when you engage in hyperbolic praise of a pedestrian act by Mr. Obama, you sound like Chris Matthews.

judgem,
Considering the immense popularity of the “we had him in our sights but couldn’t fire” storyline, so popular that ABC based an entire docudrama around the premise, the fact that people would take positive efforts to shut down similar charges in this case should be unsurprising. The fact that various commenters are still insisting that Obama was indecisive or delayed should give pause to the notion that such views won’t grow unless actively challenged.
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Joe is simply engaging in a little preemption of his own.

I don’t expect wingnut jobs to admit the obvious, because reality is not their strong suit. However reasonable people ought to acknowledge how this works. Something like this immediately gets kicked upstairs and the question becomes what are my options?
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The President is given alternatives and perhaps arranged in order of risk. He decides on an option and the mission is carried out. Now the fact that he had to okay things twice means events changed, risks changed and the president had to approve the plan again.
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The president gets credit for being decisive and having the ability to pick the right plan. This is why character counts because a lesser man would still be wringing his hands.

SHIP’S CAPTAIN: Uhm, so you’ll trust me with $320,000,000 million dollars of your stuff, but not with a gun?
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This is what I don’t understand. In the Vanity Fair article sgwhite mentioned up thread, it was a French luxury cruise ship with a crew of 30, and their wasn’t a single gun. They planned to use water hoses if an attack was to occur, and when it did they found out only one worked, and it was ineffective.
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From the article:
Today, almost one year later, Somali pirates continue to ignore the increasingly urgent displays of national power. One of the ironies of the concern being shown is that the shippers being provided with naval protection are the very same people who for years have made a mockery of the nation-state idea. They know that whatever pirate tolls they pay will always pale in comparison with the taxes that would be imposed if global law and order ever actually prevailed. But there is little danger of that. In its place a convoy system has been instituted for crossing the Gulf of Aden. CMA CGM has ordered its cargo ships to use it when practical. The company runs about 65 transits a month. Because of an increase in crew pay, insurance, and other piracy-related costs, the company has imposed a $23 surcharge on every standard-size container that it takes through—amounting to a quarter-million dollars for each trip by the largest ships. Given the margins built in, and despite the need for the occasional payout, this means that CMA CGM, its insurers, and its crews are profiting from Somali piracy. Other shipping companies are, too. By nature they are adaptable. If the navies would just sail away, they would devise their own methods to get through, maybe at still-higher cost, and probably at calculated risk, but almost certainly without violence.
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http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/somali-pirates200904

JK’s article was right on the money. The point is not so much what Obama did or did not do. The point is the talking heads of the rightwing who were spending their time criticizing Obama for what he did or did not do. They looked completely foolish, to argue he is doing nothing, then in the next breath arguing he is doing too much. Who can take these people seriously. It is kind of like listening to the Republicans argue about fiscal responsibility. Where was that during the first six years of the Bush administration when they controlled both houses of congress?
As far as success or failure, look what happened when Carter ordered the rescue of the Iranian hostages that turned out to be a fiasco. It might of had something to do with him losing the following election. Republicans like to give Reagan credit for the fall of the Soviet Union, even though American intel in 1945 predicted that it would collapse in 50 years. Well, as President you get credit for the sun as well as blame for the rain.

Haven’t read the whole thread yet, so I might be repeating something. But Gingrich et al are confusing “negotiating with pirates” with what the FBI calls “negotiating” when they’re dealing with hostage situations, which generally means convincing the hostage takers they’re best off giving up the hostages peacefully. Blowing the pirates out of the water the way Gingrich wanted would almost certainly have meant blowing Phillips out of the water too.
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Gingrich sounded remarkably like the crowd around W. all these years. Astonishes me how they now think we should go to war with the pirates too.

Regarding the question of “Why didn’t Obama settle this earlier?”. The mission was carried out after a plan had been decided upon and the assets were in place to carry it out. The plan was successfully carried out. The captain is alive and well. Three pirates are dead and one is being held for questioning and trial. Would rushing in right away and having dead hostages have been better? Would the captain’s family have been better off if they hadn’t waited for the right moment to execute the plan? Rushing in without thinking was such a huge success in Iraq. Let’s do everything without providing for any contingencies. It’s always better to shoot first and ask questions later. A successful operation is the result of planning, not haste.

judgem
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I am sorry I must have missed where someone said President Obama gave the order to shoot. Can you point to that comment?

Cost to feed the hungry in Somalia for one year — $75 million
Ransoms paid to pirates last year — $150 million

Ending poverty really is that simple.

See more at the Borgen Project

[...] Obama and the Pirates :: Swampland – TIME.com: It’s better to be lucky than good. It’s even better to be lucky and good. One can easily imagine all the different ways the rescue of Captain Phillips might have been screwed up–and the political firestorm that would have resulted. But President Obama appears to have been crisp and decisive throughout…and what can one say about the SEAL sharpshooters–firing from a bobbing ship at a bobbing dinghy and recording three headshots? [...]

This is proof that Republicans are woefully out of touch. Even a casual observer of pop culture would understand the nature of hostage negotiation. Who over the last twenty years has not seen at least one teevee episode built around hostage takers.

Appears Obama will lift travel restrictions on Cuba.

gysgt
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You can expect lots of chatter from Republicans over Cuba. So out of touch…

It’s about darn time Gunny. With all do respect to my Latino in-laws, but I think its ridiculous to have a relationship with Communist China and the former communist Russia and other countries in the former soviet bloc, but Cuba oh no we must stay away from the evil island. Give me a break.

spob
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Did you love the country without question when you read of the slave trade?
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Did you love the country when legal authorities in some states sprayed children with water hoses and attacked them with German Shepherds?
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Did you love the country when you read of German POW’s getting better seats on trains then African-American soldiers returning home after fighting for their country?
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Or did you question whether the country had taken a detour and needed to be criticized?
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Wouldn’t any criticism have been due to the fact that the country should have done better?
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Like it or not, Michelle Obama has a high approval rating. Rational beings understood, and accepted what her “love” comment actually meant.
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Do you think that a Conservative, like rusty, who wishes that his country fails because the opposite political party is in power, really loves his country?

I think at this point even the Villagers might start to notice that the GOP is not entirely serious.
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(I mean the “centrists”, not committed kool-aid drinkers like Krauthammer.)

Dee-Funny thing is the dictator Castro over threw ruled with a iron fist, jailing his opponents, using terrorist methods, and making fortunes for himself and his associates. But the US was friendly with him. He was our kind of dictator.

PIRATES, not TERRORISTS … words matter!

rmrd,
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Love of country means that you love it, warts and all. That its history has issues does not take away from that love at all.
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America’s constitution barred the slave trade in 1808. America also fought its bloodiest war in part to liberate slaves. Freemen died for the freedom of slaves.
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Criticism, of course, is fine. Unfair criticism is not. And rmrd, your post has a flaw–you shouldn’t refer to Michelle’s comment, but her comments (i.e., plural) since she said the same thing on two campaign stops (Madison and Milwaukee).
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I hope Obama fails in his bid to place under government control vast swathes of the American economy.

Dee, are your in-laws Cuban? For most of the Latino community, this aspect of American policy infuriates most of us. Only Cuban Americans have long pushed for such heavy handed American policy. In fact there’s some great articles (will find the links) that are showing that older Cubans who have long dictated this position of the cuban-american community in Miami are beginning to lose their grasp of power as a younger generation that has no experience of the early days of Castro wants to reconnect with the island.

From an overall Latino perspective, alot of Latinos have long complained that such policy was one sided, Cubans often receiving more political support than other Latino groups – think wet foot/ dry foot policy. No other Latino group ever received such an immediate path to political asylum. Keep in mind that this policy’s heyday was during the 70s and 80s was also when there were several Latin American countries in the midst of their own civil wars with communists. No offer was ever made to these nations’ populations when they arrived here with a legitimate need to escape political persecution.

Newt, Blowhardus Emeritus.

spob
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There are people alive today that were part of that “history”.
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There are children who saw their parents effected by Jim Crow.
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Even the American Medical Association did not integrate until 1961.
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Even with the “history”, African-Americans enlisted in the military at rates higher than their numbers in the population. I think, you know very little, and have nothing to teach about true expressions of “love” for one’s country.
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All I know is that I’m going to be a lot nicer to the tow-truck guy next time…

Criticism, of course, is fine. Unfair criticism is not
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And of course we have to rely on the self-appointed guardians of patriotism like spob in order to determine what is or isn’t fair. Or failing that we can notice that his insistence on tribal loyalty even in the face of evil actions by the US flies in the face of the entire structure of the US Constitution which is designed to protect us from precisely those forces and those circumstances.
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Some VERY interesting context on the pirate issue. Especially for those who believe that President Obama didn’t do much on the issue.
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http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/right-wingers-who-hit-president-pant

ymmartin
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The answer to your question is yes and I hope I didn’t come off as suggesting that all Latinos felt this way. Mine are from Florida which made it even more difficult to entertain any other opinion if you are of a certain age. Hell they didn’t really like African American or any other Latinos either so I learned to forgive them.

rmrd, what are you talking about? I love my country. Period. Full stop.

rmrd
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What it boils down to is love versus pride. I love my kids but when they act up in school I am not proud of them in that moment. Thats the major difference here. Most black people love our country myself included but obviously aren’t proud of the heritage of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Especially when if you are like me you had a parent who is old enough to have been denied the right to vote. By the same token I am proud that our country over came that with the Civil Rights act. It is what it is.

Well gunny being out kind of dictator probably had something to do with the deals he made with US Sugar and other American corporations. And throw in that at the time he treated darker skin Cubans an awful lot like we treated blacks here at home and you have all the ingredients needed for us to back the wrong side. It’s funny how we seem to forget that Castro didn’t reach out to the Soviets until after the US made it crystal clear that they wouldn’t tolerate taking the power away from rich white Cubans and giving it to the poor dark skinned ones.

spob.
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OK, Michelle Obama made the comment twice. Still, with more exposure to the public, her approval rating has gone up to near 80%.
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After 9/11, we were united as a country. We all wanted Osama’s head.
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We were tricked into an unwise war in Iraq. Dissenters were told that they were unpatriotic by a group of GOP super-patriots who “loved” their country. Forgive me if I am suspicious of people toss out the words “love of country” so easily. Recent history teaches me to want a definition.
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Criticism is the lifeblood of a democracy. So when I see poverty in urban and rural areas, I know the country can do better. Do I still believe that the US is the best country on earth, yes. Is my love affair with the country a little strained when I see unequal justice or poverty in a land of plenty, yes. I think it makes me a better citizen to want the country to do better by all it’s citizens. I love it when the country gets it right.
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I still would like Osama’s head on a platter, terrorist groups neutralized, and a justice system that treated all citizens equally, among other things.
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In the past your reflective “love” may have played to the public as making you more patriotic. After GW Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove when I hear a Conservative say that they love their country, I ask, “What mischief are you about to try now?”

SG
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You phrased it better than I. Love versus pride is the more accurate context.
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However, I do have my antennae rise when Conservatives talk about love of country. Often it is a preparation for something that is not so good for the country.

SG, nobody is going to outhawk Bush. Nobody. Least of all Obama.
The fact that this was an American ship seems to have sailed by Crooks and Liars.

Yoshi
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Did you actually click on the links in the post?

Check what happens when you are a leader of wingnuts and have the audacity to say ANYTHING complimentary of President Obama.
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http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjlmYTE0YmU2Yjk2Zjk3ZDczOWMwOTRjZjBmNWI5ZGQ=

Dee, oh no, no offense taken at all. I just thought it was a good point to explain the perspective since it really is one that has come out of a single segment of the Latino community, and honestly, has been of no benefit to the US whatsoever.

The best thing for us, engage Cuba as much as possible, it worked for us in Russia, and quite a bit in China – though the party hangs on by any means necessary.

Since we were on this subject.
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Years of violence, neglect and misguided policies have left Somalia one of the most dangerous countries and a breeding ground for the pirates attacking one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
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Today the northeast area of the country, including Puntland, has been carved up by warlords who finance themselves by drug and gun running. This is also the heartland of the pirates, whose main backers are linked to the Western-backed government. Radical Islamists control much of the south, including the key port of Kismayo and the porous border area with Kenya, a staunch Western ally.
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This has realised a Western nightmare, which was supposed to have been destroyed by Ethiopia’s American-backed invasion of Somalia two years ago in support of a puppet government created by the international community. That alliance spanned the spectrum from extreme radicals to moderate, devout Muslims. The latter were in charge.
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Everyone – except Pentagon planners, it seems – knew that Somalia had never proved fertile territory for Saudi-style radical Islam. However, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by Ethiopia, Somalia’s historic enemy, with huge casualties, put an end to that. The Islamists were driven out, the moderates went into exile and the hardliners took control of the south with a popular powerbase beyond their wildest dreams.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4769682.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
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Two years ago the U.S. military provided the boost that land-locked Ethiopia needed to finally realize its dream of owning one of Somalia’s deep-water ports. Citing the possibility that the Islamic Courts government was harboring terrorists, the Pentagon ordered gunships, fighters and warships to attack targets in Somalia, paving the way for Ethiopian tanks to sweep south, destroying Somalia’s first relatively stable government in 15 years. What Somalia was left with is starvation, tribal infighting, a brutal Ethiopian occupation and, ironically, a genuine Islamic insurgency where before there was only a suspicion of one, as I reported for DANGER ROOM during my visit to Mogadishu in November.
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Now Washington is trying to clean up the mess it helped create, on Monday bombing a town in southern Somalia to take out “an Islamic group with links to Al Qaeda,” according to the A.P. Innocent civilians reportedly died.
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Here’s why bombing won’t work: Somalis aren’t stupid. They know that the U.S. is behind the Ethiopian invasion. This, in part, drives the present insurgency. Bombing some town to kill a handful of suspected terrorists will only add fuel to the fire, deepening the very hatred that helps create the terrorists in the first place. Bombs are no longer a reasonable solution to Somalia’s problems. In fact, they only make the problems worse. On Monday we maybe killed a couple terrorists, and created a hundred more.
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http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/why-bombing-som.html
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel on Monday warned the U.S. strike on suspected al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia last week could lead to an escalation of violence there.
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“I repeat: the future of Somalia depends on political solutions,” Michel told reporters after talks in Brussels with Somali Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan on ending weeks of war in the Horn of Africa country.
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Michel said such attacks could not only hit civilians but lead to “an escalation of military activity in south Somalia which risks having a negative impact on the process of peace process and reconciliation — which should be our main priority.”
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Michel, whose office said last week the U.S. strike was “not helpful,” said he could not rule out the presence of al Qaeda in the area but insisted he had seen no intelligence confirming it.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1521726920070115
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WASHINGTON, April 7 — Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.
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The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.
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American officials said that they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive. But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush administration’s commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program.
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Since the Sept. 11 attacks, as the administration has made counterterrorism its top foreign policy concern, the White House has sometimes shown a willingness to tolerate misconduct by allies that it might otherwise criticize, like human rights violations in Central Asia and antidemocratic crackdowns in a number of Arab nations.
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It is also not the first time that the Bush administration has made an exception for allies in their dealings with North Korea. In 2002, Spain intercepted a ship carrying Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen. At the time, Yemen was working with the United States to hunt members of Al Qaeda operating within its borders, and after its government protested, the United States asked that the freighter be released. Yemen said at the time that it was the last shipment from an earlier missile purchase and would not be repeated.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/world/08ethiopia.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=print
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Finally. Ever the fool.
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Alas, there are no good guys in this war. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is a nasty piece of work. He has been a darling of the United States ever since the Clinton Administration’s time, when he was hailed as being part of the “African renaissance.” The war on terror has drawn Zenawi, a Christian leader of a religiously mixed but Christian-dominated country, closer to the Bush Administration. African renaissance man or not, he has been ruthless in his exercise of power. For instance, Ethiopian security forces killed nearly fifty people in November 2005 in a crackdown on protests. They also arrested thousands, including politicians, journalists, and activists.
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“Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent,” Human Rights Watch states. “Many independent journalists, editors, and publishers continue to endure harassment and intimidation, and criminal penalties for a range of speech-related penalties remain on the books.”
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In fact, opposition groups speculate that Ethiopia’s invasion has less to do with the threat from its neighbor and is more an attempt to unite the country around the leadership of the unpopular Zenawi regime. Somalia and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads for a long time, and fought a full-fledged war in 1977. Attacking Somalia is a way for Zenawi to score cheap political points, with (hopefully for him) minimal casualties for the Ethiopian army.
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Also, the Ethiopian government is quite possibly manipulating intelligence to fool the United States into thinking the threat from the Somali Islamists to be bigger than it actually is.
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http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1229-21.htm

Bush administration Nov of last year
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The figures also showed that 95 piracy attacks have been reported in the Gulf of Aden this year so far and that 39 have proven successful.
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“The president has been briefed about it, and ensuring the safety and well-being of the crew is of paramount importance in preventing or dealing with issues of piracy,” Perino said when asked whether any unilateral or concerted response was planned for dealing with the problem.
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“We’re working with other members of the Security Council, right now, to see if there are actions that we can do to more effectively fight against piracy and prevent it,” she said.

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Obama administration February of this year
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The apprehension appears to be in response to what U.S. officials tell ABC News was an order from the Pentagon issued last Thursday to pursue pirates off the Somali coast.
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snip
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The U.S. Navy ship USS Vella Gulf responded to the distress call and intercepted the pirate skiff. After positively identifying the suspected pirates, they were brought on board the Vella Gulf for processing and will be transferred to the USNS Lewis and Clark where they will be temporarily detained.
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U.S. officials have previously told ABC News that Kenya has agreed to take in captured Somali pirates until they can be tried. There is no official word yet if the alleged pirates captured today will be sent there, but the agreement with Kenya is designed for just such cases.
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According to U.S. officials who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity, last Thursday the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week issued a Counter Piracy Execute Order that charged the military with pursuing and apprehending pirates who threaten commercial ships in the Horn of Africa region off the coast of Somalia.
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Officials say the order creates an operating zone to go after pirates about 500 nautical miles out to sea and spans from the Gulf of Aden near Yemen down to the borders with Kenya and Tanzania.
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In other words, it is now open season for the U.S. Navy to go after Somali pirates that have haunted one of the world’s vital shipping lanes.

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Thats from the links in the crooksandliars thread. I would never say President Obama out hawked Bush. But it would seem he out planned him on this one which to me is much more important.

When I have to resort to asserting my patriotism I know I have run out of arguments. Sometime back someone said ” patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels”. In the internet age it has become the default position for Republicans who lose an argument on the facts. Fortunately facts are stubborn things. I don’t find it necessary to remind anyone I am a patriot. My service record speaks for itself.

I think that we could avoid most of these poverty-driven sticky situations by strategically increasing our foreign aid budget. The Borgen Project has good info on the estimated cost of ending global poverty:

$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.

[...] <img src=”http://allmortgagetoday.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/cb89e_2008-02-12MSNBCKlein.jpg&#8221; alt=”Time magazine’s Joe Klein in file photo” vspace=”3″ width=”240″ align=”right” border=”0″ height=”180″ hspace=”3″ />President Barack Obama was "crisp and decisive" but also lucky in his handling of the Maersk Alabama hostage crisis, exults Time magazine’s Joe Klein [depicted in NewsBusters screen cap/file photo at right] in an April 13 Swampland blog post. [...]

[...] <img src=”http://allmortgagetoday.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/d76e2_2008-02-12MSNBCKlein.jpg&#8221; alt=”Time magazine’s Joe Klein in file photo” vspace=”3″ width=”240″ align=”right” border=”0″ height=”180″ hspace=”3″ />President Barack Obama was "crisp and decisive" but also lucky in his handling of the Maersk Alabama hostage crisis, exults Time magazine’s Joe Klein [depicted in NewsBusters screen cap/file photo at right] in an April 13 Swampland blog post. [...]

[...] <img src=”http://allmortgagetoday.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/d76e2_2008-02-12MSNBCKlein.jpg&#8221; alt=”Time magazine’s Joe Klein in file photo” vspace=”3″ width=”240″ align=”right” border=”0″ height=”180″ hspace=”3″ />President Barack Obama was "crisp and decisive" but also lucky in his handling of the Maersk Alabama hostage crisis, exults Time magazine’s Joe Klein [depicted in NewsBusters screen cap/file photo at right] in an April 13 Swampland blog post. [...]

[...] Socialist, Pacifist, crypto-Muslim Pirate Killer: Jump to Comments I thought this blurb in Time was a worthwhile summarization of the pirate/hostage situation and Obama’s handling: [...]

gysgt213 Says:
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 4:30 pm

Thanks for the primer on Somalia.

It seems surreal that the Somalis once enjoyed relative stability, peace and a semblance of prosperity – under President Siad Barre. But he was not our man and so … . [Remember the edict of the grim ripper: You are either with us or you are against us. And when we break, we don't own: We plunder.]

[...] niet mogen prijzen, een ironische (!?) Limbaugh,� tevreden Obama-aanhangers.�Joe Klein legt uit dat vergaande conclusies ridicuul [...]

rmrd Says:
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 11:33 am
“rusty has openly stated that he wants the US to fail, since the country is not following his dictates. rusty wanted the mission to end badly”.
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You nutballs crack me up. Please show when I have EVER said I wished the country to fail? Do I want OBAMA’S POLICIES TO FAIL. You can bet your sweet A$$ on that for sure!! But with the current trend in policy from Obama, my wishing will not have a single iota to do with it. Obama will do it all by himself.
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But this only proves one thing. Satire from the right dare not be uttered. But, satire from the left as with all things from the left should never be challenged. GO F@ck yourselves!!!

[...] Obama and the Pirates [...]