They were French commandos. The Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos has the story about how French citizens were rescued, but at the loss of one hostage. It hasn’t hit the English press yet. I hope our readers are better at Spanish then French, but here’s a loose translation .
One of the five occupants of a French yacht hijacked last weekend off the coast of Somalia has died during an operation to free them, the French Army, reported Friday from the Elysee.
The threats to the hostages by their captors forced the military intervention, said the Elysee, which reported on Thursday that negotiations had been initiated to secure the release of the hostages. Among the occupants of the sailboat was a child of three years.
The boat, “Le Tanit, was hijacked on Saturday about 640 kilometers from the Somali coast, opposite the town of Ras Hafun, in the northwest of the country.
Update: The Guardian has an account of the French operation in English. The Guardian story also adds that pirates are sending reinforcements to the men holding captain Phillips using German human shields as cover.
The hijacking of the Alabama is believed the first pirate attack on an American-flagged merchant ship in 200 years. Tonight, a pirate source told Reuters that associates were heading towards the scene of the standoff on a captive German vessel with foreign hostages still on board to act as human shields.
“Knowing that the Americans will not destroy this German ship and its foreign crew, they [the approaching pirates] hope they can meet their friends on the lifeboat,” the pirate told Reuters.
The pirates know the “One Rule Batman Never Breaks” as well as anyone else. They’ll go up against a Burke-class destroyer in a small boat, armored in the West’s own code of ethics. The challenge for civilization is to meet lawlessness without losing itself.
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Good on the French! Sad about the hostage, though.
“Knowing that the Americans will not destroy this German ship and its foreign crew…
I’ll bet the pirates in the first story above assumed something very similar about the French. Personally, I think such certainties are dangerous and need to be disappointed. Not to say we should “destroy this German ship and its foreign crew” but certainly there must be something the Americans can destroy. I’d opt for the pirates’ complacent sense of inviolability.
What happens when the highest value of in a civilization is to feel good about yourself? One of the reasons working through “proxies”, using rendition, or manipulating affairs through “engagement” is so psychologically attractive is that it largely possible to pay others to do the dirty work. Just as tradesmen are paid to unclog sewers, butcher the meat and do the sweaty farming out of sight, we’d just rather pay someone at the UN or Somalia to do something which might stain our self-image. Who was it who said that if the safety of Washington DC were at stake they hoped someone would “do what was necessary” to get the information as long as he never told anybody. Take the risks, son. Do it for us. But have the decency never to mention it. The police and military become some kind of garbage collectors who are told specifically to stay unseen while the polite world sleeps.
The one advantage — or curse — that the World War II generation had was that they could not pretend to innocence. They had nuked Japan. They had destroyed the Nazi Armies. They flattened cities. But they bequeathed innocence to their children. That was their most precious legacy. When you asked them about the war, they told you only the good bits and laughed about the rest. Laughed so that we didn’t have to know.
One of the real moral dilemmas that the Boomers and Generations X and Y had to resolve was how to stay alive alive in a world where the struggle for survival has not yet been abolished. One way was to pretend they were outside the food chain. The other was to conceal the food chain through a series of abstractions. People think it’s fun to be a revolutionary fighting some Third World tyrant for as long as they’re not reminded of the occasional necessity to slit a police informer’s throat.
I have this theory that there are, as a general rule, no atheists in foxholes because people in those situations are very much of aware of things as they are, not as they are imagined to be. Of the need for forgiveness. Of the uncertainty of life. And the hope for salvation. It’s Good Friday in a world that desperately wants to forget that it ever happened. The problem is that if you forget the Good Friday, you forget Easter too.
#1 Ravit
“French officials have privately expressed exasperation at the determination of the Tanit’s crew, which include Chloé and Florent Lemaçon from Brittany and their son Colin, to persist with their expedition to east Africa despite the parlous security situation in the region. One official said the couple had been repeatedly warned about their adventure.”
I am not mouning on the hostage’s fate, he knew which towards dangers they were goinng I am more sad for his family.
sirius_sir,
It isn’t the first time that our navy special forces rescued hijacked boats, twice last year
It is incomprehensible that SEAL teams have not been brought to action.
A night attack from below the waves should be beyond anything the pirates are prepared for.
As for communications: cut these clowns off.
As for any additional pirates: trap and bag them, too.
As for releasing the pirates: terminate, feed the sharks.
everyone keeps shrugging thier collective shoulders on tv, saying things like no one knows what to do with the pirates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are doomed as a culture as western civ. if we dont know what to do about pirates.
I want to pull my hair out when I hear this.
It shows how far we have fallen; when the [multiple expletives deleted] FRENCH have both a higher testosterone count and sense of the reality of the situation than the US government.
Subotai Bahadur [pondering the response of my namesake's master to this situation]
This will not now end well, and if I’m right about that this event will be going down as the new administration’s THIRD major [interpreted as "stupid"] judgment error. My prayer’s are with the captain’s family. I fear his fate has been sealed by White House inactivity and indecisiveness.
All this in about 90 days. At that rate we’ll be a huge pile of mincemeat in time for the Christmas baking season.
Weakness means never having to engage in sin, no? Everything that happens, happens to you, rather than you doing anything that might be morally questionable. Isn’t this what makes it so attractive to our modern culture? It’s much easier to sit and do nothing, weighed down by shackles of the guilt of the past, and be morally pure. So, when bad things come about from your weakness, you can throw up your hands and say what can we do? After all, any response would force us to engage in doing something bad, and reawaken our guilt.
Give the French their due. They have always been cynical hypocrites about the use of force. Whether it was sinking the Greenpeace ship or staging commando raids in Africa, when faced with a national interest and an opportunity they have acted. Insulting Americans was merely the cheap coin paid to the Press to ensure that they were left alone. Like Obama’s pandering to the fetishes of the chattering class it has worked well and been rewarded by the memory hole swallowing a multitude of what in another party would be counted as sins. The French are understandably surprised that anyone else gets annoyed and they are completely oblivious of the idea that there could be larger issues of order and principle at stake when they impede the capacity of Anglo-Saxons to behave as the French do or act as the French would do if they had the capacity.
Subotai Bahadur#8 is spot on. Isn’t BHO dead set on being mentored by and emulating the [spit, spit] Fwench? Maybe he needs additional testosterone shots to overcome the wussy influence of his political “base”. On second thought, there’s probably not that much T available.
I’m having a PTSD trigger over this. It’s not so much the fact that it has happened, as that the administration refuses to help the victims.
Abandonment is the worst thing. When no one will help, when the people who are supposed to help refuse to.
Reading the comments over the past day or so and digesting what’s been said by those who’ve spent time at sea, I can’t help but think our failure to aggressively confront this means we are crossing some civilizational threshold in reverse.
Marie Claude – When my son was in Thailand a few years ago he was astounded to meet several young German and English women who, against all advice to the contrary, were on their way to Burma. He said they really seemed to believe they’d be safe there because they weren’t American. One of the mixed blessings of Western civilization is a lot of people are able go through life thinking bad things only happen to other people.
LotM – There’s not a doubt in my mind, if anyone ever really does nuke Mecca, it will be the French.
Thrasymachus @13…
A new syndrome?
Pre-Traumatic Stress Dilemma?
It could go pandemic.
Democrats in control of the FBI, what could go wrong?
We all know that there is a simple solution, but the “Law of the Sea” generation will not allow it.
Encourage the other pirates to make way to the rescue of their compatriots. Then offer them a reasonable settlement. $10,000.00 USD and a safe ride home, or hanging at sea for piracy. Make the point that if any hostage is injured or killed by the pirates, they will hang to the last man. They will of course rebuff the offer and make threats.
Then put a shell through the stern of each and every ship – disable them. If the vessel’s burn offer assistance or rescue.
Then pick one target, send in SEALS, capture or kill the pirates, rescue the hostages if possible. Hang the pirates in public from the main mast of the ship they pirated, in full view of CNN. Leave the bodies there to rot.
Then make the offer to the Pirates again, except $5000 per Pirate and safe passage, or hanging.
Some hostages may die, but then many more pirates will die.
The rate of Piracy will drop immediately. If it does not, that is, if the pirates up the ante, bomb the port of Puntland (use cheap iron bombs – nothing expensive or exotic). Broadcast the warning in advance to reduce the death of innocents, and make a point that from then on, anything that sails from Puntland will be sunk. Destroy the port.
Piracy will then cease.
I know that this sounds harsh, even right-wing wacky. However, consider the alternatives:
There will be more piracy, and many more sailor’s lives at risk. The problem is that left-wing world opinion, as Wretchard had succinctly pointed out, does value the lives of Somali pirates and their benefactors and dependents, far more that the sailors and their dependents. By NOT dispatching pirates properly, they are devaluing the lives and liberty of every man that puts to sea.
Or, of course, the shipping companies or the Western world can “negotiate” a formal deal with the pirates, paying protection to allow free passage. A new Somali warlord will take charge and enforce his will on the locale, and the world will have effectively ceded control of the seas approximately 400 nautical miles off both coasts of Africa – to African warlords.
If evil prospers, evil will proliferate. Evil, however, is a counterpart to the natural greed of man that capitalism constructively harnesses for good: Evil will not invest itself in painful and unprofitable ventures. Piracy is no different.
It’s disgusting to see an endless patter of ‘Danegeld is best paid to the pirates’ or nostrums to that effect from so-called experts.
The punishment for attacking an American flag ship must be absolute: death, certain.
Wretchard,
I believe your assessment of the Greatest Generations bequeathing the luxury to those who followed them of being able to look the other way, so to speak, is very valid.
I joined the CIA before it became a daily front page news item. I can remember going up to the Hill to participate in briefings and get secrecy oaths and agreements signed by Senators and Representatives. Watergate and the subsequent televised hearings of Pike and Church began a very different and ineffective era for the CIA.
Prior to that the Senators and Reps, many of whom were WWII vets knew the necessity for covert ops and the need for a free hand to make them effective. Thus they would often eschew the briefing and simply sign the oaths..they knew the world was a tough place,requiring tough men and methods and almost always collateral damage.
Nothing is constant but change and things changed in this country with Vietnam and then the feminization of the culture a few years hence. Now we want results with no effort, done in a totally humaine and sanitized way. I am here to say that it doesn’t work that way. Some people have earned the right to be killed and tortured. Torture has been placed totally off limits for the United States while the rest of the world uses it with impunity. Our enemies do not fear us and without exception fear is the lever most needed in your kit on the international stage. Forget the idea that a tortured man will tell you anything. That is a canard to the point. The point is that you want your enemy to fear you.
There are anecdotal stories of buildings being bombed in Iraq with families going about their normal routine right next door….why..because they know our munitions are guided and they have no fear.
In our feminized world instilling that family with fear is a horrid thought to even our top brass. However, I can say the North Vietnamese came within weeks of suing for peace because of our bombing their populations. According to politburo member Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam and in later years General Giap both admitted that our bombing terrorized their population and to stop it they were willing to capitulate. Unfortunately we stopped the bombing too soon. In war you fight for unlimited victory, unconditional surrender, or you shouldn’t fight since that is an immoral use of your military forces lives. If a soldier is asked to give his/her all then the expectation should be that we will do all we can to conquer not to coddle.
We fight no longer to dominate our foes and dictate terms but to simply soften them sufficiently to have them agree to a hiatus which usually works in their favor.
Now we have a population that is reading this and many are truly horrified that thinking such as this exists. Well they haven’t ever played the real shooting game and are naive beyond anything they can comprehend. It is a very dangerous world and we must give no quarter to those who wish to harm us.
There is no dilemna. The struggle for survival will never be abolished. It is a law as immutable as gravity or the speed of light. All generations previous to the Boomers understood this, those sorry sods.
Speaking as a Gen X/Y (right on the cusp), there is no sin in using force to fight force; barbarism to fight barbarism. The sin is in allowing life or civilization to pass into the night without a fight. The sin is to allow all the gains from all the struggles of our ancestors, from Thermopylae to Normandy, to pass into memory, and then to myth, and then to nought.
I will neither fight, nor love, nor live, with a hand (or both!) tied behind my back.
marymcl,
It may be true for the Germans, they had no colonies since WW1, but, we, as French, we have the habit to be the target of many countries, terrorist attacks didn’t spared us ; we had our lot by the sames that attacked the US, though less spectacular, as far as the casualties go.
Contrary to what think some of [multiple expletives deleted] AMERICANS here and elsewhere, our different governments never let the attacks on our people unpunished, wherever on the globe, be in firing at the hijackers (remember the Air France plane hijacking in Alger), or through secret service operations and justice special extensive means, to bring them to court.
You’re talking of the Mecca, our GIGN gendarmes made an operation there when islamists hijacked the site a few decade ago.
[multiple expletive deleted] They have always been cynical hypocrites about the use of force. Whether it was sinking the Greenpeace ship or staging commando raids in Africa, when faced with a national interest and an opportunity they have acted. Insulting Americans was merely the cheap coin paid to the Press to ensure that they were left alone.
I am surprise that you make a great case of the Greenpeace, isn’t this association sponsored by al Gore ? the commando raids in Africa were justified, in that sense that they saved some white asses and also of [multiple expletives deleted]‘s too.
National interests, depends on which side of the pond you make the definition, but I understand that they weren’t of [multiple expletives deleted]‘s
The insults have been well shared, I bet they even weighted more on your side
Habu (who commented on the need to instill fear in our enemies),
Not so much a disagreement as an elaboration lest we mix apples and oranges. Let us consider four possible situations.
1. You wish to find out the annual consumption of Khat in Puntland
2. You wish to find out how many pirates there are and their tribal affiliations.
3. You wish to find out where the Ambassador’s kidnapped daughter is, after a severed finger is delivered.
4. You wish to make sure that 50 years from now mothers in Puntland teach their sons never to touch a weapon.
In case number one you do not use force, except for implied blackmail, reliable technical information that is not critically time sensitive is best obtained through the craft of intelligence. The vast bulk of what we collect, either by technical or human means falls within this category.
In case number two it is unlikely that the use of force could be justified. Doing so usually shows a lack of skill and will get inaccurate results. While some time pressure may be felt to get tactically useful knowledge, like what bar the bad guys hang out in, a good intelligence service should be trying to build up that background information long in advance. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance and a failure to plan in advance is revealed by sloppy measures under pressure. In fairness though, it is a very big world and we have shockingly few intelligence collectors and analysts. If only the Beast was as large and all knowing as the fantasies of conspiracy theorists.
In case number three you may want to convince the subject being interrogated that cooperation is their only option. That could be by shooting a corpse, as in the untouchables, or convincing them that you are targeting their family, or waterboarding them, or threatening to disgrace their memory. In the end you may feel compelled to go for an eye for an eye but first you have to ask yourself some questions. First what will break them? Unless you are a sexual sadist what you want is an answer. If they seek martyrdom then don’t give them what they want. Study what you know about them and work with the shrinks if you can. Second consider the damage to yourself and weigh this against the value of the information. Maybe the Ambassador’s daughter is worth it. Maybe she is really Jane Fonda and you offer the bad guy a beer. Maybe that trick works.
Situation number four is easy and what you focused on. In the long term if you want to change their culture kill some of them, and convince the rest that far from being fat paper tigers we really are as dangerous as the members of the junior faculty commons room at University claimed we were, and then give them Lifetime TV.
Marie Claude,
The multiple expletives were not mine, although on other occasions they may have been. For what it is worth, on this issue, I am not disagreeing with you. Relax and say something nice about my comment. It really is as close to a compliment on this subject as you are going to get. Greenpeace is not Al Gore’s con game but it is a quarter billion dollar a year racket run out of Amsterdam.
This is absolutely the first time I’ve heard about this south american terrorist–Luis Posada Carriles–whom the bush’s gave a free pass into the USA. It looks like he’s going to be indicted under obama.
Re. atheists in foxholes- their view is that biological fear is the cause of God delusions. Which doesn’t mean they would or wouldn’t truly believe, nor does it relate scientifically to whether God actually exists. There is a school that says false perceptions are NOT at all false, they are simply disagreeable with the majority. I tend toward this philosophy more as I age.
Still mocking the psychologist: the value of “self-satisfaction” is inherent within the most sincere and altruistic motives. If charitable work didn’t feel warm and tingly, not much would get done. Once more, the facts are inconsequential to any objective truths, if they even exist; ie. charity is probably “good” whether we feel it or not.
If my vote counted (it doesn’t) then I’d prefer we use manly violence to eliminate pirates. The spiritual tie-in that Godless cultures are unable to fight is a much wider issue. It’s no wonder my vote doesn’t count.
Kudos to the French for showing some courage in the face of a very difficult situation. There is no reason some of these “safe havens” that the pirates hide out in cannot be made targets of choice by our shadow warriors. How about some drones with hellfire missles to harass and let them know that there is no safety in the business they’ve chosen? The French have shown what it takes. There is no magic formula. A little courage and some initiative and the problem will get solved. Prayers for the family of those who perished in the raid. Big middle finger to the dead pirates and their kin.
Obama will do as lefties do. They are conflicted. They do not make decisions. When they amble into a decision they doubt it while the rest of the lefty crowd complains that the leadership blew it…
This dithering is about to make the decision much harder. And, the pirates know this. When that claptrap ship with the Kraut hostages lashes itself to the dingy everything magnifies…
We all know the future.
Haven’t we seen it in the past.
The only question:
Is this just the 4th day of 444 days of a national embarrassment?
Marie Claude – It’s only natural you should stick up for your country and I do admire your spirit in tackling these forums in another language but you seem to miss the point a lot. There’s more to it than trading insults. Al Gore may well be a contributor to Greenpeace, but so what? The point is if any other nation, especially an English-speaking one, had done the same thing for the same reasons, France would be leading the hue and cry against it as a matter of principle. It’s one of the safest bets in the world. And your response to what I said about nuking Mecca speaks for itself
Charles,
The guy may be guilty as sin and I have said on another thread what I think about people lying to CBP or Immigration to get into the country but that was one seriously shoddy piece of partisan hack advocacy pretending to be journalism. The guy apparently was an operative of the pre-Chaves Venezuelan intelligence service when that country was fighting against Castro. Now that the Cubans have their friends in Caracas and Washington he is being hunted down. What will happen to the Columbians? Will they be pursued for crimes against FARC or violating Ecuador’s border?
I don’t know how it will turn out, but I know one thing, the ship was carrying aid supplies, the crew fought unarmed, and the captain either gave himself up or was captured and pirates failed to live up to an exchange.
If President Obama is a truly a Chicago Pol, how does that look back in the hood? WWMDD, What Would Mayor Daily Do? This may really turn out to be “the test”. Iit has me wondering if I really want our President to prove himself to be a Chicago Way/Daily Machine Politician or not. That is a conundrum. If the WWMDD course is advocated, watch for some big picture action I think. If not, watch for big bills turning up in strange exotic Horn of Africa hotels and of course the serial No.s will be traced from Tehran.
marymcl,
“France would be leading the hue and cry against it”
I bet your people would be more loud (and the other EU nations) !
If you had done the “Rainbowwarrior” blowing up, we would have applaussed !
I don’t see where I missed the point, It was about thesuccessful end of the hijacking of a french sailing boat.
Greanpeace was someone’else digression, umm, We could nuke Mecca of course, if it was a question of life or death for us, but in the occurence it was the Saudi royal family’s one
LifeoftheMind, umm, I was attempting to be funny, don’t you like our cynical humor ? sorry about that, I promise to stay quit next time
Marie Claude,
Don’t be quiet on my account. One difference between comedy and tragedy is that you can translate tragedy. For example there is this French comedian called Jerry Lewis, I assure you that none of us understand why your country finds him funny.
MC, I was attempting to be funny
You really need to work on that.
There’s an old joke about the sea pirate and his red shirt. Many of you have heard it. For those who have not here’s an abbreviated version
Lookout yells to captain,
three schooners dead ahead.
captain tells cabin boy to fetch is red shirt. They plunder the ships.
The scenario plays out over a month or so, each time the red shirt.
One crewman finally asks another. “whats with the red shirt?”
The mate says, “well if the captain gets hit he doesn’t want us to panic”
So they continue grab’in booty (no , well yeah, that too) until one day the lookout yells down.
Captain six American man of war ships headed this way..
the captain tells the cabin boy to go fetch his brown pants….
I just want those who F_ck with us to always be wearing brown pants because that way they’ll eventually quit messing with us at all and peace can return to the seas and the lands.
“there is this French comedian called Jerry Lewis, I assure you that none of us understand why your country finds him funny.”
who is he ? apart being the president of the “Muscular Dystrophy Association”
I also rassure you too, none of us find him funny
talk about Laurel and Hardy !
twobyfour, I know, but I learn a lot from your people
It’s a long time from when simply saying Civis Romanus Sum was a protection.
Perhaps the lessons of the British Abyssinian Campaign of 1868 – http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/histemp/abyssinia1.html
should be considered. Unless there is an example for potential bad guys to take notice of, good intentions are useless. I am not a US citizen but I think you guys are going to have a hard road back from the Obama era.
LOM
There is an old tradecraft acronym for turning someone or getting someone to get with your program M I C E
Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion and Ego”.
One of these or any combination will deliver the desired results if applied with the proper elan.
Globally with regard to warfare and international respect nothing takes the place of unalloyed fear your foe has for you. We do not strike fear in our foes any longer.
Our “shock and awe” was crap. Yes, we managed to knock out the C4 but the population , as I touched on, just knew no bombs were being sent their way. BTW, there aren’t any innocents. The innocent find a way to get out of Dodge if they know the barbarians are coming.
al Sadr just laughed at us and formed an army to give us a daily ration of sh*t, roadside bombs and dead GI’s. His little corner of the world should have been carpet bombed into rubble and dogfood. Instead we are still dealing with him.
That’s not the way to deal with an enemy.
wretchard:
One of the reasons working through “proxies”, using rendition, or manipulating affairs through “engagement” is so psychologically attractive is that it largely possible to pay others to do the dirty work.
What’s the alternative? If our population truly knew the moral sacrifices necessary for living in a world full of monsters, we would all be living in a slum. The slum may not be there physically, but it would follow us wherever we go.
Look at almost any college campus. It’s clean, despite the trash students (and faculty) throw on the grass. It is architecturally segregated from other parts of society, and its architecture affects its politics. Consider why suburbs exist in the first place. One of the reasons why they exist is so those who do the dirty work won’t need to be seen. On a grand scale, Indian removal existed to get rid of an “embarrassment”. Likewise, segregation existed so white children wouldn’t see how the family of the black maid actually lived.
What you are essentially asking of the ruling class is to end their self-segregation from the realities of the rest of humanity. Since when have they ever done that? It would be rather like expecting Marie Antoinette to understand the brutish edge of nature rather than the fantasyland she created for herself. The very definition of status ever since Versailles has been the ability to shut one’s family off from the nastiness of the outside world. In essence, you appear to be asking for a revolution more far-reaching than Robespierre’s Terror, for instead of chopping off the heads of the aristocracy, you are expecting the aristocracy to use their heads instead to understand the world around them.
By expecting members of the ruling class to give up their illusions, you are effectively expecting the ruling class to give up their most cherished token of status.
Habu:
“Your ideas intrigue me. I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.” – Homer S.
41. markb
Markb,
Don’t have a newsletter. Just my own thoughts built upon a lifetime of reading history, philosophy,and a good deal more. Throw in my unique resume and what you get is what in todays world is totally atavistic to most people, even conservatives. Most condervatives have been co-opted by the PC world. They have to be in order to maintain their jobs because if anyone ever voice what I voice in a workplace they’d be fired.
I don’t work for anybody so I have freedom of speech.
Anyway , if I wanted to work hard enough to produce a newsletter I’d spend that time developing an internet porn site, where the real money is. It would purely be mercenary.
But thanks for the interest.
Cliff Clavin
29. Lifeofthemind:
Thanks for clearing that up. I did not understand that story — as it was written. shesh. the next four years are going to be ugly.
Toward the end of the Seven Years’ War, Peter III made a separate peace with Prussia and then forced the Russian Army to wear Prussian blue. One essential constitutional question in a liberal democracy is what one does if an equivalent of Peter III were to ever get elected to executive power. Although it is necessary to act as a constructive and loyal opposition in a constitutional republic, where is the limit to constructive opposition? If the leader of a constitutional republic were to bow down to a foreign despot, does that pass a limit? If that isn’t a limit, what is?
I think the United States is in a constitutional crisis.
What concerns me as I ponder our lack of leadership in this matter from the White house is the timing. Could this be a useful diversion for our (Many)enemys to slip the Nuke or dirty bomb on a ship past the Security while attention is directed to these worthless scum? Might be a good time to move inland and upwind. A Hard rain is gonna fall.
40. Alexis
Certainly the rich are different from you and me says our old friend F. Scott F. but we happen to live in a society where there is no ruling class. Don’t buy into the class warfare/class envy/class this/class that.
Our population seemlessly goes from rich to poor to poor to rich with each generation and even intragenerationally. Yes, there is always the big chewy middle of the Bell curve but each tail of the curve is not a static but a dynamic; sometimes some of the chewy leave the chewy and move to one of the tails. Then they move back or not. And the Bell curve holds true in politics, religion, and just about every component of society you care to Bell curve.
Flux, movement,dynamism is the lamp that guides our feet. How else could one possibly explain going from a Ronald Reagan world to a Barry Obama world in the space of a bit over twenty years?
bedtime
you are expecting the aristocracy to use their heads instead to understand the world around them.
That’s the price of being in the aristocracy; that’s the price of ruling. Those who don’t want to understand the world are not obliged to. They can groove and mellow out. They can be happy and sing. But they can’t claim the right to lead. For that you need to see the edge of the cliff. Blindness is disqualificatory. The blind cannot apply to lead the sighted.
They’ve got what they want, let the rest live. It’s the least they can do.
.
The pirate minkeys must be killed on the spot if at all possible. Then their bases must be carpet bombed when no hostages are there.
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
RULE the seas you pirates
steal the infidels’ BIG boats
but NOT ALLAH’S YOU FOOLS
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don’t exterminate pirates
seizing ships for ransom
everybody gets rich
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
let pirates operate
you will get cut of ransom
and maybe some weapons too
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
Obamas fly in chef 860 miles… just to make pizza
What’s the big deal? Pizzas come out of boxes, don’t they? Ordinary people are branded climate criminals for putting garbage in the wrong dumpster; accused as selfish earth destroyers for flying economy to a roach motel “with a wide selection of fine eating places nearby” for what passes for a vacation, but what is really just as a gasp for air. Back in the old days, forms had three blanks an applicant could fill out: 1) trade; 2) profession; 3) quality.
In the last box, you could say, “gentleman”. Who says you can’t bring back the past?
habu:
You are correct in all of your observations. Unfortunately, it will take a nuke detonated on our own land before we wake up to the reality.
What a different world it would be today if we had forced the Commies to sue for peace in Vietnam.
Why is the Belmont Club, Powerline, Drudge, Hugh Hewitt nor any of the major media stars not covering this story? Israel to sell spy drones to the Russians
Elroy #51 The “what if” game began earlier than Vietnam. My vote has it first coming into irreversible play at a sliver of water called the “Yalu River”.
Wretchard,
Why the silence from Pajamas media?
Why nothing from the “support the troops” crowd?
Marie Claude #37. Imo you’ve shown on this thread the courage of a Frenchman. Most Yanks these days are more familiar with Fwenchmen, which obviously excludes you. Kudo’s to your commando’s for their rescue operation.
And instead of using a “G”, most on this site consider our former vice president to be either a “Boor” or a “Bore”. But either spelling will work [spit, spit].
Adeiu
@52. 2164th
Maybe because it was not widely reported?
But that is not really the question, is it?
1. BHO administration is selling out Israel, under the bus they go. No help vis-a-vis Iran would be forthcoming, seems just the opposite. Israel is on her own.
2. The UAVs are not the latest type, it is the previous generation.
3. It is more that a guess that there is a quid quo pro going on. Israelis need two things: a)SA300 specific details, b) coordinates of certain places in eastern direction that you won’t find on the google earth.
Any questions?
No questions. Try this headline:
” France to sell spy drones to Russia”
@ 56. 49erDweet
Correct, MC is our esteemed contributor, regardless of French extraction. I actually know a few French posters with their heads screwed on right, a couple of them that I hold in high regard are frequenting Rantburg. So yes, there seems to be a fundamental difference between French and Fwench (pusillanimous detestosteronized metrosexualists). It sort of parallels the distribution here, we have an oversupply of the same breed, usually referred to by me as libruls or moonbats.
@ 58. 2164th
France would sell spy drones to Tuvalu, if they had them any decent and if Tuvalu had cash to pay for it. They wouldn’t even need quid-quo-pro of any kind.
They sell their Mirages to anyone who asks (not that many, but hey! It is not that bad fighter jet).
A nice try though.
I recently finished reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Moon-Andre-Hue/dp/0141015802
Very hard to put down, a true story of heroic French men and women.
The German language side of Spiegel has been leading with this story and updating frequently. Now tribal chiefs are attempting to intermediate.
They claim the pirates attempted rendezvous of hijacked ships did not materialize because the pirates almost got lost and couldn’t locate the lifeboat.
Also, Spiegel said yesterday, and repeated it again today, that there had been a GSG9 plan to storm the hijacked freighter Hansa Stravanger. That plan was called off at the last minute. Spiegel said the pirates were able to get themselves and their booty to safety too quickly.
The Hansa Stravanger has 5 German seamen on board amongst the 23 member crew.
49erDweet
that’s may-be cuz you read Brits papers, it’s hard to find one of their articles that would recognise us some merits ; they generally think they are the smart people in Europe
Our army guys have always been brave, though like everywhere the “elite” isn’t always made with the most courageous but with “connections” though this happens to not be less evident since a few decades.
Nonentheless, the Navy had always been the the top guis !
to not be less –> to be less…
twobyfour
France would sell spy drones to Tuvalu, if they had them any decent and if Tuvalu had cash to pay for it. They wouldn’t even need quid-quo-pro of any kind.
They sell their Mirages to anyone who asks (not that many, but hey! It is not that bad fighter jet).
“You really need to work on that.”
They have more Americans now.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/World/2009/04/11/Seafarers-official-Pirates/1239460500.html
All within 90 days in office, The One has been exposed. I hope the fools and idiots who voted for him and who now regret it stew in their own hubris for the next four years. At this point, in the big picture of things, the Muslim pirates of Somalia have helped to expose our new principate of Gaius Germanicus, a.k.a. Caligula, erstwhile occupant of the White House, he who brings in Kathy Ireland as an economic adviser.
It took longer for Jimmy Dhimmi Carter to come out and expose his incompetence. The current Usurper will do far more damage.
And I think this is the kind of thing the nation needs to maybe finally realize that all the variants of the Left are destroying this nation and the free world.
This may be the first straw in the wind indicating that Obama is losing the support of the independents who made up his margin of victory.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/08/gun.control.poll/
Thras, “Abandonment is the worst thing. When no one will help, when the people who are supposed to help refuse to.”
Neglect is the most vile of sins committed against the victim. Because it means that the perpetrator does not even care enough about the victim to show hatred.
I suggest we use “Chicago style politics” to deal with the pirates. They hurt one of ours and we kill ten of theirs. They kill one of ours and we kill 10000 of theirs. Sounds fair to me. But, it does go against the biblical norm of an eye for an eye.
How about we just lob a missile into the harbor where these misunderstood entrepreneurs hang out. Make it one big enough to remove all of the water from the harbor temporarily. Then when the water comes rushing back in it will cleanse the beaches of parts and such. Leave a nice clean starting point for more reasonable folks to take up house keeping.
Jim
So let’s compare crises of the first 1-2 years of our latest US Presidents:
Reagan Air Traffic Controllers Strike “They are in violation of the law and if they do not report to work within 48 hours they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.”
Bush 1 Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait “This invasion will not stand.”
Clinton WTC First Bombing Lobbed a few cruise missiles into Afghanistan and the Sudan. Set the conditions for the debacle in Somalia.
Bush 2 9/11 Completed the unfinished work in Iraq that the UN had issued 19 different resolutions condemning while taking bribes during Oil for Food, and oversaw the dismantling of AQ
Obama Multiple piracies, and now he has Eric Holder on the case pursuing federal charges against Somali pirates. That should be an effective deterrant.
Setting the tone early matters. Its the difference between words and deeds vs. simply words.
So let’s compare crises of the first 1-2 years of our latest US Presidents:
Reagan Air Traffic Controllers Strike “They are in violation of the law and if they do not report to work within 48 hours they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.”
Bush 1 Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait “This invasion will not stand.”
Clinton WTC First Bombing Lobbed a few cruise missiles into Afghanistan and the Sudan. Set the conditions for the debacle in Somalia.
Bush 2 9/11 Completed the unfinished work in Iraq that the UN had issued 19 different resolutions condemning while taking bribes during Oil for Food, and oversaw the dismantling of AQ
Obama Multiple piracies, and now he has Eric Holder on the case pursuing federal charges against Somali pirates. That should be an effective deterrant.
Setting the tone early matters. Its the difference between words and deeds vs. simply words.
Ooops, should have added great post! Waiting on the next post!
Moonbatism defined
@ 65.
MC, I were being serious.
Twobyfour I know, but I am tired to argue tonight
(I have some sources that I can use another time)
MC, why would you argue?
Puzzled…
1. France looks after its self-interest. It is natural and reasonable policy paradigm. My only issue is with hypocrisy coming from French circles when they protest too much about self-interest of others. And I don’t buy the “merchants of death” meme. France sells its weapon systems, so does Sverige.
2. Sometimes, what actually represents self-interest may be a bit murky. ChIraq, for instance, had misguided ideas in that regard and de facto went against French self-interest, confusing his own myopic ideas about self-interest for that of France.
50,000,000 Pounds Sterling deposited into a Japanese financial institution is enough to rent a French President.
ChIraq had to auto-immunize himself on/for that score, too.
Did he get it converted into Yen in time? Perhaps.
He certainly did not give it back.
umm, mein Schâtzen, sources ? not the MSM !
see you
I shall repeat:
Slaughter now or slaughter later.
Slaughter later = slaughter more.
Please search archive for author’s note; January this year, I believe.
Marie Claude in #36 advised: talk about Laurel and Hardy!
Very well. Newly arrived recruits Laurel and Hardy saved the Legionaires of Fort Arid from the riff-raff Riff attack, in “Beau Hunks” (1931.) It’s celebrated to this day at Sons of the Desert gatherings worldwide.
MC @76…
Unable to google it up just yet…
IIRC, this came from an interview with a long serving member of the French national detective force.
He bitterly complained that as long as Chirac was Preident he could not press charges.
Further, in his interview, he stated that he’d been set free by the retirement of the President of France.
Subsequently, the whole thing was buried.
The reporter did confirm that some Japanese bank had been contacted and THEY affirmed that Chirac has a huge deposit on account: something not previously disclosed.
Further investigation is warranted.
When you’re investigating former heads of state you’d be naive to think that they can’t still influence the situation.
It’s a muddy pot on the boil.
WWII is decades into the past…
Revelations that impeach the storyline STILL keep bubbling up.
No one can be all that confident in praise, damnation or exoneration. Too much manipulation is still possible for players at that level of power.
You must remark upon the reluctance of current office holders across all nations to air the dirty laundry of their predecessors…
Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (Rachel Bronson)
Scale of arms tradeGovernment and commercial secrecy has meant that the size of the global arms trade can only be estimated. One of the most respected annual estimates is made by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). For 2005 it estimated the value of the global trade in conventional weapons at $56 billion/£27 billion. Significantly, between 2002 and 2005 there has been a massive increase in the market totalling around $20 billion/£9.84 billion.
Arms were chiefly imported in 2004 by countries in the Middle East ($10 billion/£4.92 billion, chief markets: UAE $3.6 billion/£1.77 billion and Saudi Arabia $3.2 billion/£1.57 billion). The second largest importer was Asia ($5.8 billion/£2.85 billion, chief markets: China $2.7 billion/£1.33 billion; India $1.7 billion/£0.84 billion; and Taiwan $1.1 billion/£0.54 billion).
2be4,
The main exporters in 2006 were USA ($14.08 billion/£6.9 billion) and Europe ($11.2 billion/£5.49 billion). Within Europe, Russia ($5.8 billion/£2.8 billion), France ($0.4 billion/£0.19 billion), Germany ($1.0 billion/£0.49 billion), and UK ($3.3 billion/£1.61 billion) were the largest.
The proportion of military expenditure accounted for by countries in the developing world was about 18% in 1993 (up from 6% in 1965 but down from 24% in 1989). During the 1980s, NATO countries supplied 31% of arms in the developing world, with France supplying 11%, and the Warsaw Pact countries supplying 58%. In 1994 the USA was a major weapons supplier in 45 of the world’s 50 regional conflicts, and sold arms worth $14.5 billion/£9.1 billion
umm, sometimes interests are disguised behind morals, uh ???
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blert
now Chirac is said having had an adventure with a japanese girl, but still up to now no proof could be edited, as well as for his japanese bank account
so you merely repeat “rumors”
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Cog
Then I am even more admiring them