American captain freed!
Bookworm on Apr 12 2009 at 11:01 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.
One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.
Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby.
Read the rest here.
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12 Responses to “American captain freed!”
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Thank God! The Navy Seals are just amazing, along with all of their support staff. They are an inspiration – along with that captain!
This should not be the end of the story. Action must be taken to eradicate Somali piracy and the “piracy hub” port of Eyl in Somali should be the target of punitive air strikes, perhaps in concert with some ground forces, to destroy its port facilities and infrastructure. The SEALS job has just begun.
This is very good news! The best news of all (at least according to what I’ve heard so far) – We did not pay the ransom, nor did we pay the pirates’ Somalian overlords (on land). Additionally, from the reports, Obama approved the use of deadly force, so I will give him credit for that. I am surprised and that is for the good.
Kudos to the French for rescuing their hostages in the separate parallel piracy attack. One hostage died; but again, no ransom was paid. I have not heard whether all pirates in that rescue were killed or not. I certainly hope they were all killed. We have one pirate/kidnapper alive as a result of our rescue, and he will hopefully now be judged correctly and given a death sentence.
I wish our government had used the bully pulpit effectively during these many days to clearly identify the Somalian piracy groups as evil and anti-civilization. This is not an isolated incident.
Now to wait for the details of the story.
Credit where credit is due….Obama authorized deadly force to rescue the captain – although he left himself wiggle-room with the contingency he attached…..
NOW, we find out what the man is made of, because if this is the end of the deadly force, then any American captured is in a world of hurt. Bullies will respond to being bloodied only if it happens predictably and with regularity….do it once and then show restraint and they think you’re weak.
With Carter, America was weak…..and now?
Earl –
I completely agree.
This particular incident ended perfectly and I’m thrilled. But I shudder to think what Obama would have said/done had it NOT worked out perfectly.
I do not want to take anything away from the hard work and actions performed by the Navy but this particular incident was “relatively” easy, straight forward. What will Obama do when the situation is more difficult or complex?
If he waivers, we will be seen as weak. And then it’s open season on Americans.
Deana
This is what your tax dollars are really meant for. Military protection in an ever more dangerous world. Of course, some people believe your taxes are really meant to pay for social equality and welfare benefits for the slave constituencies of the Left.
They benefit while you are extorted, that’s their idea of fairness and equality.
Y – you are right. If I thought taxes were going up to ensure that our military was well-compensated, well-trained, and had the latest equipment, you would not hear a peep out of me.
But instead, I’m hearing people debate whether what the Navy did was right or “wise” and whether these ships ought to be armed (hmmmm, what a difficult question!). And there are serious questions about whether we will continue with missile defense and F-22 capabilities.
There should be no question about any of this. It’s madness.
And there are serious questions about whether we will continue with missile defense and F-22 capabilities.
And they don’t want the military to fight any wars to improve. They instead say that, like privatized health-care and social security, “wars” would break the system, just like private companies would break the system, when in truth it is government promoted peace and subsidies that break the system.
How do they expect the military to be willing and able to fight and die for American citizens, when those citizens have kept the military locked up like a lap dog and poodle match set? Because they don’t care if you are taken hostage and killed, Deana. They’ll be sitting on their couches living their Daily Living Stipend, DLS, as David Weber described for the People’s Republic of Haven in his novels.
Once shackled by the illusion of peace and the prosperity of slavery, it saps the human will to exceed. And the human will to exceed is precisely what is required for the military to perform above and beyond the call of duty.
The only people the Left cares about are those they can victimize and extort votes/money from.
There should be no question about any of this. It’s madness.
as Europe has demonstrated, all those Leftists cum socialists? They want to loot money from the military to pay for their social justice projects, meaning most goes into their personal bank accounts while the poor gets just enough to keep them safe and secure in their little pig style prison.
And Americans here have been educated to believe the same. That’s why they believed so readily that the US military could be “broken” in Iraq. That’s why they wanted the military used for “homegrown” problems and pulled away from foreign locations like Iraq.
In the end, most of the people who voted for Obama just wanted a strong man. Something they raised a raucous over concerning Iraq, saying we can’t build a democracy because the Arabs keep liking strong men and do not have a “history” of democracy. As if the Left had a “history” of democracy. Of course, in reality, they were always talking about themselves. They wanted a strong man. They wanted a dictator that would tell them what to do, take care of them, and make sure they wouldn’t have to fight any real enemies.
And they didn’t even get that, for Obama is only a dictator on domestic matters. He cannot match a Putin or even a Kim Jong. Even in this, the Left failed miserably. They cannot build prosperity in democracies and they cannot build even a strong totalitarian state. All they are good for is fodder for the cannons of our real enemies. All they are good for is to be the tools of those that actually know what they are doing on the world stage.
Earl:
>> Bullies will respond to being bloodied only if it happens predictably and with regularity….do it once and then show restraint and they think you’re weak
I completely agree. When confronting a bully, thug, or criminal (any human predator), to succeed once by merely bloodying a nose almost always invites massive retaliation. It is about power and control. The Somalia pirates have lost a little bit of control, and they will not accept that.
What happened last week with the French and the US successfully thwarting the piracy attacks can only be a first step. If not followed up on correctly, it will lead to worse. The ball is in the West’s Court.
>> Obama authorized deadly force to rescue the captain – although he left himself wiggle-room with the contingency he attached
Earl, I haven’t followed the news as closely as I should have. The idea of this “wiggle-room contingency” is dismaying to me. Can you tell me more about it? That is precisely my fear about him and why I hesitated to give him credit: Because I lack the details that might make this less than a win for us.
Mike:
First, if we wish to stop the piracy, we are going to have to refuse ANY negotiation, and use carefully controlled violence to free our people. And, we’ll have to keep doing it, even if hostages are killed during the rescue attempts. Naturally, we had better be attacking the root of this evil plant at the same time — our people will have to be on shore, taking out the leadership with what will surely be risky sorties by brave men. I would think that the use of drones would be helpful, and we are going to have to get used to the fact that innocent people who live with or near the guilty are going to be killed as well. It’s the nature of war. If we do not react to these acts of piracy in a way reasonably analogous to how we (finally) reacted to the Barbary pirates, then we’re going to see LOTS more piracy….and why not? Right now, it’s a good alternative for the guys who are involved — our job is to make it plain that it’s worse for them and those they care about than staying ashore, or at least away from our shipping.
Second, I want to be fair, and I only know what I heard on the radio, but the authorization of deadly force was reported to be limited to something like “if the circumstances warranted”, or “if the lives of the hostages were at risk”, or something of that sort….PLENTY of space for a politician of a certain stripe to begin questioning if orders were followed perfectly had the captain been murdered successfully during the assault on the pirates. Is our current President a politician of that stripe?
I guess we’re going to see.
That is precisely my fear about him and why I hesitated to give him credit: Because I lack the details that might make this less than a win for us.
Read this link.
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/04/how-the-rescue-happened.html
And look at my comment down bellow. I wrote something that should remind you of how David Weber looks at command authorities and styles.