Yup...
To bowdlerize a comment I saw elsewhere,
"Those French Commandos are making us look like Wagyu-eating surrender monkeys..."
Posted on 04/12/2009 12:17:22 AM PDT by Cincinna
PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the rescue mission off the Somali coast that ended in tragedy when a young French yachtsman was killed as commandos stormed a vessel being held by pirates, releasing his wife and three-year-old son.
For the first time yesterday, details emerged of an extraordinary rescue operation piloted from the Elysée Palace. It involved three French warships, a German frigate and the airdrop of dozens of French commandos some 400 miles off the African coast.
After two successful armed assaults to save citizens from yachts in the same waters last year, Sarkozy’s luck appears to have run out. Florent Lemaçon, a 28-year-old computer programmer from Brittany, was shot dead as his wife, their son and two friends were rescued from their yacht.
The drama, in which two pirates were killed and three taken prisoner, is certain to raise questions about the muscular approach adopted by “Sarko”, the “omnipresident” who relishes the role of commander-in-chief. It may also give pause to America’s military, which was threatening action yesterday against pirates holding a US captain who had thwarted their efforts to hijack his container ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***
Please read this exciting story to see how a real, strong, and determined political leader deals with a crisis requiring fast, swift, and sure action.
Obama diddles, has pizza parties. and distracts attention with talk about the “first puppy” while the Captain of a ship flying the American flag is being held hostage by pirates.
Piracy is an act of War!
Thank God little three year old Colin was rescued.
Our prayers go out to the families.
A shame, but they all could have ended up dead, instead of just one. I say good for Sarkozy, as our own president is such a indecisive wuss that our people will just suffer until they’re dead or someone else takes action on their behalf.
Nice cover for 0’s waffling, Times.
So sorry, but they’re getting no prayers from me.
Lord! What a family of hippy-dippy airhead twits! I’m guessing it’s wishful thinking on the part of the writer that this incident is somehow going to change Sarko’s approach to the pirate problem.
Judging from the responses on the UK Telegraph site. Nobody is holding the demise of the oh-so-enlightened Monsieur Lemacon against the French President.
Thanks for posting. The leftist hand-wringing aside, it is reassuring to know that there are still adults in this world.
The French can be pretty narsty when they want to be.
NewsCorp is the US MSM. It's their duty to serve the Dark Lord
I have a feeling a couple of Freepers would prefer Sarko to be our president instead of the muslim in the White House.
All captured pirates should be made to walk the plank.
Quite literally, a quasi balanced, pivoted plank should be fastened amidships, and with the ship underway, each pirate, hands bound, be marched in turn out the plank until the plank tips, sending each pirate to Davey Jones’ Locker.
This should be the standard practice of all civilized nations and would have a salutory effect on the frequency of piracy.
And now we have the uncomfortable spectacle of the French making us look like punks.
All captured pirates should be made to walk the plank.
Quite literally, a quasi balanced, pivoted plank should be fastened amidships, and with the ship underway, each pirate, hands bound, be marched in turn out the plank until the plank tips, sending each pirate to Davey Jones’ Locker.
This should be the standard practice of all civilized nations and would have a salutory effect on the frequency of piracy.
Just a COUPLE?!!!
There should be an international bounty on the pirates, if the reward was right I would call up a few friends of mine and we would make us up a civilian mercenary vessel.
Sad times when France has more balls than the US of A.
Sad indeed that the leaders of the Free World are now Sarko and Bibi.
It is embarassing,but elections do count.
They elected strong, determined, experienced leaders. We elected His Barackness, the man from nowhere. No history, no family, no roots, no experience. And a weakling pseudo-intellectual who doesn’t even know that “Austrian” is not a language.
Not much choice but to go in, from where I stand. Good on Sarkozy and good on the French commandos.
Yup...
To bowdlerize a comment I saw elsewhere,
"Those French Commandos are making us look like Wagyu-eating surrender monkeys..."
ping
Lay the election of Obama at the feet of democrats - all of them.
> There should be an international bounty on the pirates, if the reward was right I would call up a few friends of mine and we would make us up a civilian mercenary vessel.
I’d join you. Boarding pirate ships sounds like alot of fun.
I wasn’t thinking of boarding, more like pirate skeet shooting.
> Good on Sarkozy and good on the French commandos.
The French have several elite forces that could do the job. I wonder which one they used?
> I wasn’t thinking of boarding, more like pirate skeet shooting.
That sounds like fun, too. But if you don’t board, how are you going to seize any booty that they might have hanging around? If they’ve been raiding yachts there could be alot of cash and other valuables aboard. No point sending that all to Davy Jones: it’s plunder and a legitimate war prize.
As well, they might have seized a couple nice boats. The insurance companies will want those back, and for a price they can have them. But to do that, the boarding party still has to take control of the vessel.
We can still load all the pirates into the crappiest vessel and then sink it.
Notice how the lead of the news story is slanted toward giving in to the pirates by emphasizing the tragic loss of one hostage. The mission didn’t backfire. The risk to the hostages was a calculated one. Two of the hostages were saved but two pirates were killed, thus the perpetrators were taught a deadly lesson. More operations like this one will eventually deter the terrorists. By that measure the operation was a success.
It is very sad, but how many lives will be saved if we starting getting tough with these pirates and put them out of business. I think 5 dead pirates is a good start.
I like this idea. These bounty hunters could be today's privateers.
Hooray for France, French citizens can hold their heads high while Americans are stuck with a Kenyan president whose sympathies lie with Somalia and the 3rd world in general. France has a European president while we have an African president. I can call 0bama an African because he wants nothing to do with the white/American side of his family. 0bomo is the racist in denial of half his heritage
By that measure the operation was a success.
By ANY measure, the operation was a success.
Once taken hostage by Muslims, your life is forfeit.
If by some miracle, someone other than your captors takes it
upon themselves to attempt your rescue without paying ransom or meeting demands of the captors, all the better, and if by chance, fortune, miracle, or other, you survive, better still, and if in the process, the rotten Muslim scoudrels that took you are dispatched to their afterlife, how much more success could an operation want?
Back in the day England chartered private pirate fighting ships
You curried favor with the King and got a letter of marque. When would a coward like 0bozo ever authorize the same? Instead he's got the FBI out there negotiating and I'll bet faggy State Department lawyers are on the scene too
http://www.piratedocuments.com/Letters%20of%20Marque/anti_pirate_fleet_1404.htm
| About Anti-Pirate Fleet 1404 This License was issued to Henry Payne by King Henry IV allowing him to form press gangs to kidnap enough men as crews for his new fleet of war ships (which he paid for himself); and then to sail his fleet against any enemies of the King or those loyal to him. |
 |
Below is the text of Anti-Pirate Fleet 1404 |
|
Letter of Marque The King to all and singular Admirals, captains, castellans, and to their lieutenants, and to keepers of ports of the sea and other maritime places, and to majors, bailiffs, constables, provosts, and officers, and to masters and owners of ships, and mariners, and also to victuallers of ships, and to all other our lieges and subjects, whether on land or at sea, liberties or without, to whom these presents may come, Greeting. Know ye that we have granted and given leave to our well-beloved In witness, &c. These presents to endure according to our pleasure. |
Don't forget the Purist Republicans/Conservatives who "just couldn't bring themselves to compromise their sacred principles and vote for the RINO McCain".
These dickslap "conservatives" are every bit as responsible as the commiecrats.
IOW we send our pirates after their pirates. Sort of.
They are all private parties and if our pirates violate any Geneva Convention jive who cares.
Just so long as they dispose of the other guys pirates
Just make sure our pirates have some aircraft to wipe out the pirate compounds in Somalia
So much more efficient than just pirate ship to pirate ship fighting like in the old days
“These dickslap “conservatives” are every bit as responsible as the commiecrats. “
Clearly, it’s all BUSH’s fault!
I need to research the best attack ship, something that can stay at sea for a long period of time and be sizable enough to defend itself, my first thought would be a tug with barges, except the barges have concealed firing ports, high pressure pumps to spray burning diesel, smoke generators and high voltage railings and deck areas.
A drop down sea ramp that can launch high speed non rigid boats with ballistic cloth shields.
And some deck mortars with multi use cannisters of pepper, mace, tear gas or grape shot.
When no loss is acceptable, then losing all is what becomes the inevitable.
It is a tragedy that the hostage was killed, but it is a blessing that each of the other hostages were saved by the gutsy actions of Sarkozy and the French military. The author of this whiney pee article, is no kind of man at all.
Sounds great but how about some air power. You waste the pirate’s land bases and mansions and families. Muslims only care when there is a threat to waste their wives and offspring
Is there a small ship that our anti-pirate forces could convert and deploy that could handle multiple attack helicopters and Harrier jump jet type airplanes. We need a mini aircraft carrier for airborne anti-pirate attacks
The alternative is paying infininte tribute to islamo nazi pirates.
I was thinking of what I could put together by just doing some basic shopping at a nearby friendly port, not to overthrow a country.
I do believe there is one just like that on station, yes the US Navy has them.
It emerged yesterday that Sarkozy had dispatched 50 commandos from France to a French base at Djibouti, on the “horn” of Africa, on Thursday, in readiness for the assault.
Joined locally by 20 more commandos, they parachuted from a Hercules plane into the sea, to be picked up by three French warships that had been tracking the pirates, together with a German frigate equipped with hospital facilities.
Somali-speaking intelligence operatives had joined negotiations with the pirates on Wednesday, but found them “intransigent”.
On Thursday shots were fired at the Tanit to disable its sails: the French were determined to prevent the craft, whose engine was not working, from reaching the shore, a pirate haven where dozens of hostages from other vessels have been held for ransom and from where it would have been almost impossible to launch a rescue.
Sarkozy, who throughout the negotiations held regular meetings with his generals in the Elysée, ordered the rescue mission on Friday morning when the Tanit, which had continued drifting towards shore after its sails were destroyed, was only 20 miles from the coast. It was feared the hostages might be taken ashore that night by a pirate speedboat.
The defence ministry said the pirates had refused a French offer to transport them ashore and had turned down a ransom – the amount was not specified. The pirates had also dismissed an offer of exchanging the mother and child for a French soldier. Instead, they were overheard discussing using explosives to blow up the yacht.
After Sarkozy had given his order there was a delay in executing it. “We waited until three of the five pirates appeared on the deck,” General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the army chief of staff, told Le Journal du Dimanche, the French newspaper.
French snipers opened fire, instantly killing two of the pirates. Another was said to have fallen overboard. Some 60 commandos then boarded Zodiac dinghies and approached the yacht. Only eight went aboard, guns at the ready.
Chloé, Lemaçon’s wife, and Colin, their three-year-old son, were rescued from a cabin in the stern of the craft. Dorian Pierre and Steven Ménoret, friends of the Lemaçons, were rescued from a cabin in the bow.
The two remaining pirates were hiding below deck where Lemaçon, the captain, was being held separately from the others. They began to fire their Kalashnikov assault rifles up through the deck, prompting return fire from the French troops preparing to rush down the companionway.
The pirates were quickly overpowered. The mission had taken only six minutes.
The survivors are being flown to Paris today aboard an aircraft chartered by the defence ministry. They will be invited to a meeting in the Elysée with Sarkozy. He has offered his condolences for the death of Lemaçon.
“Sadly, a hostage died,” said a statement from Sarkozy’s office. It emphasised the president’s “determination not to give in to blackmail and to defeat the pirates”.
THere is nothing new to this ancient equation. Chasing pirates around the ocean is a fool’s errand. This is like chasing individual ants with an icepick.
You go to the nest.
This has been well known for at least 300 years. Madagascar, Port Royal etc. Pirates cannot exist without friendly sanctuary ports to refuel, rearm, refit, reprovision etc.
If you want to wipe out piracy, you attack and wipe out their pirate ports.
090405-N-8283S-026 GULF OF ADEN (April 5, 2009) Rear Adm. Terence McKnight, left, congratulates Rear Adm. Michelle Howard after she assumed command of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 and Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4). Boxer is the flagship for CTF 151, a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the Combined Maritime Forces area of responsibility to actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John J. Siller/Released)
See 42.
This really sounds upsetting to hear the father was killed and possibly from indirect friendly fire.
But as its being told everything is coming to a brink soon with the lifepod drifting closer to shore, if it is captured by more pirates ashore then it would be dramatically impossible to retrieve the captain.
Time is running out quickly.
The alternative was the entire family ashore with the women raped, the children tortured etc while the hostage/ransom game went on and on.
I give credit to Sarkozy and the French commandos. Paying ransom just ensures more kidnapping.
If you want to wipe out piracy, WIPE OUT THE PIRATE PORTS. This is not a new concept! Sheesh, we have known this for 300 years!
Yes but the US will never attack a Muslim country no matter what with a Muslim president. That is the problem, this is going to keep going on week after week for as long as we are under this ridiculous leadership, if I can even call it that.
I absolutely agree about the nest part.
Then it will go on and on and on.
Reagan would have left the ports in ruins by now.
The only things that will be piloted from our White House are political spin, appeasement, indecision and capitulation. Sarkozy has balls while Obama is a politically correct eunuch.
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