Posted on 04/11/2009 12:46:09 PM PDT by Zakeet
This story comes from Bloomberg -- which we cannot excerpt.
However, we can provide our own summary of the general gist of the article which is that one of the pirates has claimed both sides have agreed to a prisoner exchange -- our captain for four of their outlaws. The article goes on to warn that as of right now, this is by no means a done deal.
You can read the article HERE.
Ten are Italian, five are Romanian and one is Croatian.
And, a special chef has flown over 850 miles to prepare the pizza for me just the way I like it!
What would you have the Navy do? The captain is in a tiny, enclosed lifeboat with the 4 pirates. The only way to resolve it is to find a way to get him separated from them, unless you want to just sacrifice the captain’s life and blow the lifeboat up with all of them in it.
Blow them all out of the water including the captain.
But we lost a lot of our advantage with the feet dragging and insipid negotiation.
I'm sure the captain's family appreciates your concern.
Nice. Deals beget more raids on shipping and hostages for the lucrative ransom “business model.”
I just don’t know what to say. I long for the days of Ronaldus Magnus.
An earlier thread said the captain DID make a break for it over the side of the lifeboat and the pirates jumped in and brought him back while the Navy watched. I guess 0 didn’t want to hurt his somalian muslim terrorist brothers.
It seems to me it took some time for the Navy to reach the area. At that point, with the 4 pirates and the captain enclosed in a lifeboat, the only immediate action that could be taken was to blow them all out of the water. It seems many here would endorse that course of action. Sometimes, it's better that cooler heads prevail.
I am dead set against ANY payment or ransom, but I don't think it's foolish to wait them out a little and try to find ways to get them separated from the captain. At that point, we can do what we need to do to them.
It’s always difficult to quarterback from a distance. But if Zero had given the fleet commander permission to do what he thought best, it’s likely that the Captain would have been safe a couple of days ago, and the pirates captured or dead.
Two obvious solutions would be to send in a team of Seals from the destroyer. They could have approached the lifeboat after dark and used a stun grenade or even just knives from several directions to take out the Pirates.
The other obvious solution would have been snipers, from the destroyer. If you have a number of snipers taking aim, they could take out all the pirates before they could act.
Risky, yes. But in the long run a lot better than teaching pirates that you will roll over when they attack you.
This is the first American vessel in 200 years. If they handle it with negotiations and rewards, there will be many more such incidents.
And what’s to prevent the islanders in the Carribean from taking to piracy, if their economies get bad? There have already been protests and strikes down there because of the financial crisis. If piracy pays, then what would stop them from doing it, too? Or from the Central American coast?
He’s the one that gave himself up instead of fighting.
Bambi slept through that 3 am call to the White House.
Yeah, I'm sure they just watched, chuckling and saying "looky there". The news I read said he never got far from the lifeboat and the whole thing only took seconds. I'm not sure the Navy had enough time to do anything, though it would have been wonderful if they could have.
“Make the swap, then kill them all.”
Wait a couple of days. Track them back to their ports. Destroy all of the infrastructure, every boat, every fuel tank, etc..
And then destroy every boat that moves along their coastline for a few months going forward.
I can’t think that we wouldn’t be able to do this..
I fear we are doomed to almost 8 more years of this guy thanks to the media carrying his water.
Granted. I gave the benefit of the doubt to all involved in the early stages of this, but when the Captain jumped ship and we did not close the deal, it was painfully apparent to me that we have become dangerously gun-shy.
If this was an open lifeboat, "knives from several directions" or snipers would be a great idea. Unfortunately, if you've seen the pictures, this lifeboat is an enclosed capsule. There's no way from the outside to see where anyone is inside the lifeboat. The only way to enter is through a single hatch. Snipers from a distance are of no use in that situation and anyone entering the hatch with a knife would be at a distinct disadvantage.
That would be fun, but. It really comes down to trust. Can our word be trusted?
It would have been better, and it used to be protocol, to give the perps x number of hours to re-consider and release, or face an attack.
I would rather they trusted that we would, in fact, blow their smelly azzes up.
So, you see, trust is important. LOL
I do. I just remember it as covert dealings to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Not to release hostages. Of course, my memories are fading and subject to convenient reminiscing in my old age. :-)
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