Let’s see: no dead good guys, three dead bad guys, one bad guy in custody, no cargo lost, and no ransom paid. Wouldn’t you have loved to be there when the American sailors told the “negotiator” that he was now a “prisoner”? Heh. Thank you, U.S. Navy.
Ronald Reagan couldn’t have done it any better.
Evil exists. It is not simply a different point of view. Lasting peace is a direct result of a victor dictating terms of surrender to a thoroughly defeated enemy. Barring that, genuine control is the next most effective option, and that control emerges by making the price of anti-American aggression so high that no one would dare pay it.
President Obama, neither your treatment of rogue states nor your apparent affection for obfuscatory terminology (“overseas contingency operation,” etc.) has been particularly encouraging to date. Perhaps today’s success, which I assume received your approval, will inform your foreign policy to some degree going forward.
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I’m so glad that Pres. Obama took the bull by the horns and put a swift end to this outrage. (can you see my tongue firmly planted in my cheek?)
Who wants to bet that the Navy officer who gave the order to shoot gets some sort of reprimand nonetheless? Maybe not in the immedaite future, but at some point down the line…
Until then – nice shooting, SEALs!
Terri: I think he did all right. ‘Course, he could still babble a lot of it away in a press cycle or two early this week.
nhfalcon: That’s one way it could go, sadly.
I’ll bet the conversation went something like this:
Chosen One: Well, I don’t know. I mean the French tried this and they got someone killed…
Naval Commander: Sir, I have trained Navy SEALs who eat fire and shit lightning and are invisible to the naked eye. I like our chances against God, let alone Somalian pirates. And with all due respect sir, the French???
Chosen One: …well, just don’t make anyone else mad, ok?
Chances that Captains Richie Phillips and Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger go on tour together?
Here’s how I see things happening. Because we fought back, more hostages will be killed in the future – the pirates will be emboldened because we refused to talk nice to them, and will become more aggressive in their attacks. Thus the world can blame us for the rise in violent piracy.
Like Bush would’ve done anything different.
Sheesh.
Don’t misunderstand me, wxchick. I’m delighted that Obama had the stones to release the decision to the commander on site, and I agree it probably would have gone down similarly under Bush. As Jonah Goldberg pointed out this morning, a truly Carteresque approach would have required the pirates’ safety.
I don’t, however, find yesterday’s events particularly consistent with what we’ve seen of Obama’s foreign policy to date. Here’s hoping that bad guys shall be bad guys for the next four years, and that they don’t drown in a sea of moral relativism and “legal proceedings.” Yesterday’s rescue was a glimmer of promise toward that end.
He did what he should have done and things turned out very well. All the negativity and sarcasm is unnecessary.
And I heard first thing this morning that said “pirates” have taken 3 more ships in the past 24 hours. Two are known (not US) and the 3rd is not known yet.
So, it’s our fault. Right?
And I think negativity and sarcasm are fun. 🙂