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Defense secretary: Killed Somali pirates were "untrained" teenagers ("No Military Solution")
China View ^ | 4/13/2009 | Mu Xuequan

Posted on 04/13/2009 3:27:57 PM PDT by tobyhill

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday that three Somali pirates who were killed by the Navy's Seals to end a hostage crisis were "untrained" teenagers.

Addressing an audience at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, Gates said that the slain pirates, aged at between 17 to 19, were heavily armed but inexperienced.

They were shot dead on Sunday at the end of a five-day standoff with the U.S. military after they attacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship about 400 kilometers away from Somali and held an American captain as hostage.

"As long as you've got this incredible number of poor people and the risks are relatively small, there's really no way in my view to control it unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids," Gates told students and faculty members.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.xinhuanet.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antiamerican; ashoura; bho44; bhodod; bhosecdef; hateamericafilth; liberals; maritime; pirates; quantico; robertgates; rop; somalipirates; trop
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To: OneWingedShark

Thats a slap in the face of all those who took part in this.
My God, what have we done.


41 posted on 04/13/2009 3:38:43 PM PDT by Yorlik803 ( If this be treason, then lets make the best of it.)
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To: tobyhill

“Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word “draw” in my sleep.

“Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, “Reach for it, mister!” I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away.

“Little bastard shot me in the ass.”

— An important lesson about “kids with guns”, from the movie Blazing Saddles.


42 posted on 04/13/2009 3:38:43 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: americanophile

Schooled in the KORAN!

(Which tells these Muslim kids to KILL and to PLUNDER the infidels)


43 posted on 04/13/2009 3:39:01 PM PDT by Kansas58
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To: tobyhill
"As long as you've got this incredible number of poor people and the risks are relatively small there's really no way in my view to control it unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids,"

Isn't the obvious answer to make the risks relatively large, as in shooting them dead?

44 posted on 04/13/2009 3:39:26 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget (July 4, 2009 see you there))
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To: jazusamo

Gates basically made that case as if it does matter. He almost excuses their behavior being they were teenagers and poor.


45 posted on 04/13/2009 3:39:38 PM PDT by tobyhill ("Hope and Change" is so overrated!)
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To: tobyhill

On the Job Training?!


46 posted on 04/13/2009 3:40:15 PM PDT by Freedom56v2 (Wonder if our founding fathers would even recognize the USA?!)
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To: tobyhill

In the sense that there probably is no ‘school for piracy’, then Gates is probably right. It is still an idiotic statement, however. A fast boat, an AK, and a will to commit mayhem is all that is required. It’s also time to consider what would have happened, Sec. Gates, if 1 of our highly trained snipers had missed. You would probably have been thrown under Obama’s bus.


47 posted on 04/13/2009 3:40:22 PM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
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To: pissant

These pirates need midnight basketball....


48 posted on 04/13/2009 3:40:50 PM PDT by llevrok (I would rather die, standing up and fighting, than to be on my knees, begging)
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To: Yorlik803

>Thats a slap in the face of all those who took part in this.
>My God, what have we done.

The guy’s statement, or my suggestion of impeaching him?


49 posted on 04/13/2009 3:40:57 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: pissant; trisham
the one thing that was so refreshing was his utter lack of political correctness and his handling of the fools in the media.

Yes, I miss Rumsfeld.

50 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:08 PM PDT by marron
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To: Kansas58
"Dead muslims in the straights off Somalia...

Dead muslims in the straights off Somalia..

Dead muslims in the straights off Sommalia...

And they're stinking to high heaven.

51 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:26 PM PDT by South40 (Obama lied; the economy died.)
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To: pissant
There were things that Rummy did that I did not agree with. I remember Duncan Hunter tussling with him a couple of times. However, the one thing that was so refreshing was his utter lack of political correctness and his handling of the fools in the media.

*******************

I rarely agree with anyone all the time and don't expect to. I loved Rumsfeld because of the very reasons you mentioned. He is a true patriot and a brilliant man.

52 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:30 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: tobyhill

“As long as you’ve got this incredible number of poor people....”

Oh get the F out if here, you mean every poor kid will become a pirate? And that attacking these pirates wouldn’t deter kids from joining up??? Oy


53 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:30 PM PDT by Williams (It's The Policies, Stupid.)
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To: tobyhill

If the pirates were young white chrisians just screwing around they would be considered blood thirsty humans in need of instant execution.


54 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:38 PM PDT by jetson
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To: bill1952
Oh, we have trained pirates now, do we?

If not, Big O, Reid and Pelosi will probably sponsor a foreign aid bill named "No Pirate Left Behind."

55 posted on 04/13/2009 3:41:43 PM PDT by Bernard Marx (Free California from public employee union rule!)
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To: OneWingedShark

That jerk wads statement.
Impeaching him would have been too good. Tar and feather maybe.


56 posted on 04/13/2009 3:42:09 PM PDT by Yorlik803 ( If this be treason, then lets make the best of it.)
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To: Prophet in the wilderness
“All we are sayyyyying

Is

Givs Somalies a chance”

57 posted on 04/13/2009 3:43:01 PM PDT by Kansas58
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To: tobyhill

The vast majority of Somalis don’t kill anyone. Why does the action of a minority require intervention with the population as a whole?

If lawyers, sea lawyers at that, weren’t involved these ships could just gun these guys down. People adapt. They’ll find something else to do.

Pacifism and multi million dollar rewards is fueling this.

Anyways, Gates and the security bureaucracy isn’t letting any opportunity go to waste to expand the bureaucracy, spend more and tax more.

Heck, I bet people would PAY to ride these ships. Bring some DVD’s, beer, meat, grill, meet like minded friends, get a tan...


58 posted on 04/13/2009 3:43:14 PM PDT by Leisler ("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."~G.K. Chesterton)
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Comment #59 Removed by Moderator

To: tobyhill
unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids

You mean, something like THIS?


60 posted on 04/13/2009 3:44:45 PM PDT by Jim Noble (They are willing to kill for socialism...but not to die for it.)
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