AP:
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.
Thankfully, Capt. Richard Phillips is fine. This is a wonderful Easter gift for his family.
Not good enough. The remaining pirate must be tortured until he reveals the location of his terrorist network which must then be destroyed with B52 strikes. Failure to do this will send the message that Obama is weak on terrorism.
Regime change in Somalia should also be enforced, if they can find it.
The USN also now expects escalating violence in the region. Sigh.
Well, at least the fellow is fine & now free.
I wonder what the commenters of that other post about this (Obama SOFT SOFT SOFT on TERROR!!!! etc etc) think about it all. Probably that it went on far too long or some such.
It’s interesting the way this is now being reported as “freed” the first reports I heard were that he’d jumped overboard (again) i.e. he had escaped, but I guess that that didn’t accrue enough glory to the State.
“Not good enough. The remaining pirate must be tortured until he reveals the location of his terrorist network which must then be destroyed with B52 strikes.”
No I think nothing short of a full nuclear strike on the whole of Africa will suffice.
Thank God the poor SOB is free. Good for him and his family!!!
Now, the right will criticize him for his his “socialist” attitude. The man told the pirates to keep him and set his shipmates free.
Any good rightie Captain would have said, “Look kid’s, we’re all in this together. So buck up! And look out for me!!! Only I can set you free!”
How will they do that? I have NO CLUE! But, somehow, they will turn this mans altruism into a socialist meme. Just watch!
Obama seems to have made every effort to negotiate for the release w/out paying ransom before using force to save the captain. Hopefully, we are in a stronger position to have influence wiith other nations and a coordinated response to a situation that can’t be ignored. So far I have not seen how many other (non-American) hostages are being held in Somalia. But this underreported fact makes a wholesale military response ill-advised.
Remember how the wingnut crazies always accused the left of hoping for American casualties in Iraq? Well I think many of them made it pretty obvious they were hoping this poor bastard (the ships captain) would be killed so they could say the wimpy commander in chief Obama failed his first military test. Wrong again assholes!
Should’t our current commander-chief get some recognition for this?
So far I have not seen how many other (non-American) hostages are being held in Somalia.
Doug, this morning NPR kept referring to roughly 200 hostages from other countries. The fear is that the pirates will retaliate against those hostages for the deaths of the three pirates. (Seems like the cost of doing business as a pirate, imo.)
Hopefully, we are in a stronger position to have influence wiith other nations and a coordinated response to a situation that can’t be ignored.
The administration must be aware of the root causes of piracy that other commenters mentioned over the weekend: Europeans dumping nuclear waste into the waters off Somalia; other nations having overfished the area, robbing the Somalian coastal communities of a livelihood. Just addressing the symptom won’t do any good in the long term.
@BillJones : the initial reports of the captain jumping overboard were just wrong. He was, in fact, tied up on the boat. The Navy thought he was in imminent danger of getting killed, so they acted.
-me
The pirates are threatening to retaliate and kill American and French mariners. This is ridiculous. There is no real government in Somalia to address the pirates and the situation. A few surgical strikes with cruise missles should substantially reduce the threat to all in the area. The outcry that innocent people could be hurt in this strike does not wash because the “innocents” are in the area to feed off of the illegal gains of the pirates. Just my opinion.
Nah, a full nuclear strike is unnecessary overkill. Just stop sending them the food and they will wither away slowly.
Not good enough! Carpet bomb the entire Somali coast!!!! How dare they call US and French aggressors? They are violating international law, our president is soft on terror and this will only get worse.
We shouldn’t give the pirates a chance to raise the odds. We should raise them first! Helicopter gunships should take out any suspected pirates before they get a chance to take control of another ship. No small fishing boats are going to be that far offshore, the only boats that far out to not have good intentions.
Secondly, we ought to put security details on all U.S. flagged vessels in the area so they can defend the ships. I’m sure our special forces teams would love some more target practice.
Hasn’t the the penalty for piracy always been quick and immediate death? What a whimpy view of the world we’ve achieved. The remaining pirate should be executed and his fellow pirates be hunted down without mercy. I have no sympathy for this type of thing. The rules of the seas should be enforced and anybody going for this type of activity should have no doubts as to what will happen to them. If we give the pirates anything less, we are just asking for more trouble.
My understanding is that current maritime law does now permit merchant ships from carrying weapons. I think in light of these events it is time to change that law and allow all vessels to carry weapons and have armed security. The pirates are threatening to kill and American and French people they capture. It’s time to take the fight to them.
According to Obama, these aren’t pirates. They are yet some more friends that we haven’t met yet. They shall be set free instead of going to prison. The USN snipers will go to court for killing innocent Somalis.
Re oDUMBa et al. — where the hell are these mouth breathers coming from? At first I thought they were joking, but no, I do believe these are escapees from the Idiot Farm. I’m closing down comments. Anyone who is stupid enough to agree with the comment above, please go back to InstaPundit or wherever you came from. Thank you.