Crittenden has some (slightly) more emollient policies to suggest for those who consider his first recommendation “too draconian,” but since I do not so consider it, I won’t bother to burden you with the extraneous details. Piracy on the high seas is an atavistic barbarism that England and the United States all but stamped out in the 19th century. That it is making an enormous comeback now is just one more reminder of the extent to which the world is more and more succumbing to the pressures of retribalization. The point is that civilization is never finally achieved: its triumph is always temporary, always subject to renegotiation, to erosion from the forces of anarchy without and existential fatigue within. Writing in 1938, when the world was undergoing another period of retribalization, Eveyln Waugh noted that
Barbarism is never finally defeated; given propitious circumstances, men and women who seem quite orderly will commit every conceivable atrocity. The danger does not come merely from habitual hooligans; we are all potential recruits for anarchy. Unremitting effort is needed to keep men living together at peace; there is only a margin of energy left over for experiment however beneficent. Once the prisons of the mind have been opened, the orgy is on. There is no more agreeable position than that of dissident from a stable society. Theirs are all the solid advantages of other people’s creation and preservation, and all the fun of detecting hypocrisies and inconsistencies. There are times when dissidents are not only enviable but valuable. The work of preserving society is sometimes onerous, sometimes almost effortless. The more elaborate the society, the more vulnerable it is to attack, and the more complete its collapse in case of defeat. At a time like the present it is notably precarious. If it falls we shall see not merely the dissolution of a few joint-stock corporations, but of the spiritual and material achievements of our history.
What is so dispiriting about the current scene is the awful sense that we are replaying a terrible drama. Haven’t we been down this road before? China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and God knows what other nasty regimes are ratcheting up their military spending. A week or so ago it was reported that China has developed a special “kill weapon” to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. Meanwhile, the U.S. is slashing its military spending, abandoning, for example, further production of the F22 Raptor, the world’s most advanced fighter.
On the economic front, the U.S. and other governments are endeavoring (in Daniel Hannan’s apt phrase) to “spend [their] way out of a recession,” with the predicable consequences that anyone with eyes to see and a smidgeon of historical memory knows is a recipe for economic catastrophe.
The Obama administration has launched a societal Blitzkrieg against individual initiative, against inter-generational wealth, against the institutions of private property. His plans to nationalize the health care industry and to hamstring the U.S. economy with so-called “green” (really, they’re pink) rules and regulations, threaten to cripple not only the productive bits of our economy but also the spirit of independence and responsibility that fuelled America’s astonishing achievements in the past. The ultimate horror of the scenario is that we all know how it ends. The sleepwalker careens uneasily along the edge of a precipice. Who among us has the courage, who commands the rhetorical magic to wake and warn the sleepwalker before it is too late?
I’m as much against piracy as the next guy, but I’m sure there are plenty of innocent boat owners, especially fishermen, who would lose big with this policy. Furthermore, it seems doubful that any of them have power or influence over the bad guys.
I don’t own a boat, but I’ve always wanted to, and I would hate to see my property, not used in any illegal way, seized simply because it was a boat.
I think we have to be a bit more targeted in what we’re trying to do.
D
A lead at Drudge says everything we need to know: Somali pirates “not afraid of Americans.” Since our president apparently believes that doing anything that would cause fear would be dishonorable, why should they be afraid? And, if they are not afraid, why should they not continue to assault the ships of the world?
The only problem with striking militarily is that you fail to attack the full range of issues. Sun Tzu says: “Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.” To defeat piracy is more than just killing them, because they will come back. You have to attack the reasons that people are pirates in the first place.
Piracy is popular in Somalia because it is easy money, the chance of punishment is slim, and the population supports it because the pirates give a small percentage of their “earnings” to the locals in order to garner their support. This is not unlike the piracy that thrived in the Caribbean. To fix it, you have to attack the whole problem:
-Make the money tougher. Arm merchant ships, increase patrols (particularly from nations that aren’t helping right now), and kill pirates on sight.
-Attack the poverty of the region. Somalia has, among other things, minerals, shipping ports, arable land, etc., that is more than able to make money. Get money making ventures into the country and employ the local populace, so there are places to turn other than crime.
-Finally, make your case legal. Hold executions of the pirates so that the local population sees it, and give monetary incentives to turn in pirates. Turn the locals against pirates, and you’ll have less pirates.
I’m all for blowing stuff up, but it won’t solve the problem unless we attack the strategy behind why piracy is allowed to thrive.
John Keegan is one of the greatest military historians in our era. Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that the Obama administration perceives this crisis as a criminal justice matter. And that means it’s likely to get much worse. The only real hope we have is that President Obama’s poll numbers drop like a stone. Both houses of congress must be near hostile towards him if we are to have a chance of perhaps even surviving his term in office.
Our country is paying an awful price for the scandalous lowering of standards at Harvard University. Few people saw it as clearly as I did that Barack Obama is a poorly read and shallow individual. It took me all of five minutes. Sadly, the majority of Americans were conned by Harvard’s ill earned reputation as a school of quality. The reality, of course, is that this famous (infamous?) academic institution is something of an academic whore house. Grade inflation is rampant of the campus. Obama is obviously an affirmative action beneficiary. But what the heck—maybe someday he may learn to speak Austrian and visit those 57 American states. Those who have anything directly to do with Harvard should be deeply ashamed. Ultimately, they may be responsible for the destruction of our nation.
One can hamstring one’s self by being to nice. That is what we have done. Pirates are enemies of mankind. Yet, we treat them as common criminals. Sink their boats, kill them,- let them swim as far as they can, hang them from the yard arm. End the madness of paying ransom.
Free market solution, a bounty on pirates.
Here’s a bumpersticker for our besieged age:
“So Many Pirates. So Few Yardarms.”
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/enemies_foreign_domestic/free_bumperstic.php
“-Attack the poverty of the region.”
Geez, thanks Obama. Good thinking. Sailors don’t have the right to sail unhindered in international waters until every Somali has a job.
How about letters of marque and reprisal,Javert? I concur with sinking pirate vessels on sight and with summary executions of any captured pirates. And in addition to that, punitive raids on Somali ports to destroy property and infrastructure. Borrow a page from Sherman’s March. The on-shore civilians who profit from piracy must be made to suffer and cease to support piracy, and every pirate at sea should be worrying about his home village being razed.
Ryan, you’re missing the point; we don’t CARE why pirates are pirates. We only want them to stop being pirates, or die trying. Similarly, I don’t care why criminals are criminals; they need to stop, or die.
I’m all for hardening the targets; arming the merchant ships, deploying a few Q-ships, putting a bounty on pirate scalps. But there’s no point to gibbeting pirate corpses, or tarring them to that they last longer; there is no civil society in Somalia, so no one would be intimidated.
Remember the fable about the scorpion; he can’t help his nature!
The pusillanimous governmental reaction to world-wide banditry is not just a US or Western phenomena. Apparently, it is spreading to all corners of the globe.
Just today, the helicopter “rescue” of at least a dozen world leaders (including those of China and Japan) attending the ASEAN conference in Thailand from the rooftop of an hotel is beyond outrageous.
Two thousand red-shirted “protestors”, waving those little red fans of theirs managed to rout these venerable leaders from their musings with not so much as a “thank you for your visit to our kind land” farewell. Reminded me of the “last day in Saigon”.
One almost wants to join the protestors, pirates, illegal immigrants and so on……just for the fun of it.
We don’t need to solve the problem of piracy. We only need to solve the problem of pirates attacking US flagged vessels, and a good solution to that is to lay waste to offending pirates’ home villages. Let the Europeans, Filipinos, etc, make their own accommodations – that’s not our problem and we already know they’ll all betray us at the first hint of trouble, anyway.
Mr Kimball … “intra-generational wealth” ? don’t you mean “inter-generaltional” ?
and Mr Thompson – you again! – you annoy people… but that “Austrian” remark ! … that’s so telling …to know central europe in the 1930s just a little bit…. and not to know that Austrians are a German speeking people! … but that’s Columbia’s fault, right?
Pusillanimous Reaction, Part II
Oh, and what happened to the “North Korea Rocket” incident? Didn’t our Secretary of State just last week warn of “dire consequences” and “imminent action” and so on?
Looked through all the dailies today and could find nary a peep about this affair. Maybe there was something about “Japan toning down its rhetoric” in this regard or words to that effect. That’s about all I saw.
Political correctness has not only overwhelmed the lexicon used by governments, NGOs, academia and similar institutions. It has now become so entrenched in our conscience that it is actually dictating political – and possibly in the future, military – actions.
No wonder the stock market doesn’t know which way is up anymore.
Don’t expect any kind of serious US response until after January 20, 2013 at the earliest.
I confessed that I expected the Obama administration to be a reprise of the Jimmy Carter days but I really did not expect it to happen within his first 100 days in office.
Thanks to #14: I did mean “inter-generational.” Now fixed.
With Letters of Marque & Reprisal, this entire imbroglio could be handled by Blackwater et al, and the Pentagon would never have to get their white gloves dirty.
The only law that is in effect in Somalia, is the Law of the Gun.
It is well past time that we invoked it.
A couple hundred years ago Hegel talked about two people vying for dominance. The loser was the one who was worried about losing his life, while the winner was willing to risk losing his life in their struggle.
But today, we’ve got leftists who worry about the other guy losing his life. Sheesh! Dominating the pirates would be so mean. It would be like those horrid imperialists of old. It would be so cowboy-like. We can use negotiation instead of force. Etc.
Because of the pervasiveness of PC-thinking, I have a feeling this problem will be around for a long time.
This sort of has to happen. The weak Western governments have to be exposed for the pitiful jokes that they are. Then, reform finally happens.
Iraq would not be a Democracy today if not for 9/11 (which was not even directly done by Iraq). The same sort of thing will happen here.
The good news is that Pirates are a lot easier to beat than terrorists. Pirates don’t actually want to die, just for the goal to kill others.
Again, the more Obama is make to look like a weaker version of Jimmy Carter, who plays the race card to boot, the better the chance of repeating 1980, and getting a proper President in the WH.
At least Jimmy Carter didn’t have a huge ego.
Did you hear that Bob Geldof is going to stage a series of “LIVE RAID” concerts to benefit Somali pirates.
Ryan #4:
You have problem in making your argument. Previous episodes of piracy in history have be ended without resort to alievation of “root causes” as you would have it. Indeed, previous successful efforts to eradicate piracy have tended to be just a cunning and ruthless as the policies advocated by Keegan, Crittenden and Kimball. Why should anyone think like policies would be less successful today? Why not emulate past successes? Simply asserting that they would not be is no argument at all.
RegretLeft, you tool, Thompson was making fun of The Won’s own comment in Strasbourg when Uh-bama said “I don’t know what the term is in Austrian.” Hear it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr7zhnctF4c
And then you bust on Kimball for misspelling “intergenerational” while in the VERY SAME SENTENCE you misspell “people” as “peeple” – AND mess up the ellipses – AND – blow the capitalization at the beginning of the sentence. I’ll say it again: RegretLeft, you tool. lol
Cato argues, with a nice chart, that piracy (http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/12/16/pirates-and-sharks/) isn’t particularly worse than before. That doesn’t mean, of course, that it should be ignored.
Land invasions? Video footage would create a political nightmare. Sinking of Somali motherships, from which boarding boats are lunched, in international or “Somali” waters could be done more quietly to greater success. Well-armed or -guarded crews, however, will be the ultimate solution. Shipping costs will increase, but that’s how it’ll be.
Obama is Carter II and this sequel will, like most, be bad, almost certainly much worse. At least Arafa(r)t isn’t around for Obama to snuggle.
Conservadick said:
We don’t need to solve the problem of piracy. We only need to solve the problem of pirates attacking US flagged vessels, and a good solution to that is to lay waste to offending pirates’ home villages. Let the Europeans, Filipinos, etc, make their own accommodations – that’s not our problem and we already know they’ll all betray us at the first hint of trouble, anyway.
I could not agree more and Somalia is not worth our time, trouble, money or aid. Laying waste to as much pirate infastructure as possible, both on land and sea is what was needed from the get go. We have the technology and weapons to easily do this. Yes, there would be some co-lateral civillian causulties and the international community would loudly condemn our action in the public forum. So what, who cares.
The mullah obamaham and his happy, haappy, joy, joy talk and posture has brought us to this point in record time. How long has it been, 100 days or so. BHO is making a mockery out of the Carter days but being weak and incompetent from the very beginning.
When the french outgun us in a similar situation, that is quite an embarrassment for this administration. But, it is quite obvious they do not care too much for one American captain, a damn brave one at that. Wonder how BHO and his ilk would have reacted had he been a muslim American captian taken hostage?
RegretLeft: You’re correct, anyone who thinks Austrians speak Austrian is an utter fool and certainly not fit to be President.
And anyone who voted for such an ignorant fool should do some hard thinking about how easily they were tricked into thinking Obama was anything other than a 21st Century snake-oil salesman. Assuming you voted for such a moron, maybe you should start wondering what else you’ve been wrong about?
Let me see…”Africa”…an’ the whole US 1960′s “Don’t cut their balls off no matter what kinda crimes they pull” policy….There’s yer ever lastin’ fiasco of a “legacy”…LA Riots of 92=Obama=Somalian pirates..When is the decreasing population of Anglo-European founding populations of America gonna see past their hang-ups to realize an invasive strategy for what it is….an act of subversion…an’ invasion…all under the premise of cloak, dagger an’ pussyfoot. Biden ‘s a wuss if he think’s Obama jest a “good ole boy” suckin’ up ta to massa….Yer tryin’ ta get me to believe that the freakin’ US can invade a whole damn country…an’ slaughter tens of thousands indiscriminatily…but when it comes to Africans they can’t blow this handful of trash into itsy bitsy flakes of fish food?…What a sad and pathetic message that is for the military to suck up to….
4. Ryan:
“-Make the money tougher. Arm merchant ships, increase patrols (particularly from nations that aren’t helping right now), and kill pirates on sight.”
This is a viable solution.
On October 7, 2008, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1838 calling on nations with vessels in the area to apply military force to repress the acts of piracy.
At the 101st council of the International Maritime Organization, India called for a United Nations peacekeeping force under unified command to tackle piracy off Somalia.
A good deterrent or defense would be for the ship owners to carry trained, heavily armed guards. They would be shooting directly at the pirates and not to innocent fishermen.
“Most pirates are aged 20–35 years old and come from the region of Puntland, a region in northeastern Somalia. The East African Seafarers’ Association estimates that there are at least five pirate gangs and a total of 1,000 armed men.
According to a BBC report, the pirates can be divided into three main categories:
* Local fishermen, considered the brains of the pirates’ operations due to their skill and knowledge of the sea.
* Ex-militiamen who used to fight for the local clan warlords, used as the muscle.
* Technical experts who operate high-tech equipment such as the GPS devices.”
This is definitely a war.
#25 Bob McCarty,
I think ‘RAID’ is the key word in your post. That is the only way to rid the area of these cockroaches.
Of course they probably have better lawyers than the rest of us can afford.
Maybe Obama will offer them asylum, they can shack with his ‘auntie’, while we determine if they are guilty.
When it comes to piracy, what part of hang them, sink them, and kill them doesn’t the Obama administration get? Unfortunately, history is filled with examples of how piracy terrorized the seas. And, more to the point, in every instance the only way piracy was eradicated was through the use of brutal force. The Royal Navy, as well as the American Navy, were masters at hunting down pirates and hanging them. Even as recently as May 1975, when Khemer Rouge pirates seized the US container ship SS Mayaguez off the coast of Cambodia, the pirates were discouraged from attacking other American ships only because we responded with massive force. True, a number of American Marines died in the operation to free the Mayaguez, but the fact remains that both the crew and the ship were rescued unharmed and American ships were never again attacked by communist pirates in that area. The only way to discourage this sort of thing from continuing is by a massive show of force against the pirates. This may also be one of the few instances where most of the world would support us, since there are so many foreign navies in the area trying to protect their merchant ships (when was the last time you saw ships from the Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Indian, American, and NATO navies working together on anything?). I am sure that a firm response against these pirates will be supported by every nation with trading interests in the area.
WORLD ABUSES NAIEVE OBAMA
Idealist utopian like a lost child.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/obama-no-match-for-committed-enemies.html
Obambi’s administration is pro-marxist, anti-military, and totally afraid of taking any casualties outside the Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan theater of operations. We have enough firepower in the Indian Ocean today to raze the coast of Somalia; it will never happen on Obambi’s watch.
Thank you for this article…and #5, I’m glad you made those points…
Sometimes I feel like one of the passengers (featured in the movie made) on Flight 93, starring in horror out the window, helpless and desperately whispering into a cellphone while self righteous lunatics drive the plane into the ground.
President Zero endlessly grins and campaigns, flying around the globe apologising and making a fool of himself and us. He jokes and laughs with fawning media airheads, and pledges other peoples savings and retirement funds to adoring and “engorged nonproducers.”
“Return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts,”…we will be landing shortly…
I hear some lawyers saying these pirates don’t belong to a government or on terrorist lists so they fall through the cracks of jusisprudence. Is this what lawyers and politicians have brought us to? Piracy is not a crime? All we really need is more rope, and not only for pirates.
A lot of good comments showing basic common sense in this thread.
As a US Merchant Marine for over twenty years, with a shellbacking, two circumnavigations, service during Desert Storm, and more years at Maersk Line than I’d have cared for, I want to show you the ropes.
Arm our ships with two or three .30 caliber machine-guns and a 1000 rounds or so apiece.
Furthermore, make it a federal crime and license revocation offense for a Captain to lose his ship to pirates without putting up a lethal force fight. The Feds largely stopped gratuitous oil pollution with OPA 90.
For those advocating increased Naval presence…it’s a waste of our money. Pirates, like muggers or rapists,(and pirates are both), are not going to strike when armed authority is close enough to stop them.
But the authorities cannot be everywhere.
Like on land, the solution is for the potential victims to carry the means with which to stop the threat unassisted, and these actions must be promoted and endorsed.
An armed guard force is a better approach, but again is a waste of money.
You people have to understand that to us, our ship is our home. We will, as my brothers on the Maersk Alabama showed, defend it and ourselves, and we will do so effectively.
We are American citizens too, yet we do not enjoy the right to keep and bear arms and to effectively defend ourselves, simply because of where we work.
War at sea is fairly “clean”, in that there is not a lot of innocent bystanders or noncombatants. On a painted ship floating in a painted sea, we know good and well who is a crewman and who is not.
Piracy will cease when it becomes unprofitable, and when pirates set sail from their lairs and fail to return.
This is why we must kill them, and if we capture them, we must execute them and feed their bodies to the sharks.
Piracy has come to your attention since it was an American ship that was seized, but this has been happenning since I’ve worked at sea.
My first ship was Japan bound 3 miles ahead of a Japanese supertanker not 18 hours of Singapore, when it was hit by the pirates that infest the Straits of Mallacca.
They used a machete to behead that captain.
This was in 1987.
it’s a war
so long the democraties don’t consider that these pirats are organised and supported by the rogue states, so long we’ll consider that the human rights forbid us to interven on poor people, nonentheless well armed, this will be the law jungle, where each state cares for its own people, like France does…, the Indians did
Now, Something has to be done with all the concerned nations, and yes these pirats are criminal, poverty ? it’s their escuse and the compatissent altermondialists’ one
Obama is finding out what Bush was up against for years, old Europe will not help. They are afraid of violating the pirates human rights, whatever that means.
Russia told Bush that they would team up with us to go in and take them out. The only reason we started a navy was to deal with pirates.
We need to dig up Thomas Jefferson and let a real man handle the problem.
SWIFT SILENT DEADLY SPEAKS
Here is How C ReCon Marines and Navy Seals would like to handle it ……. since I was a ReCon Marine for 6 Year this was my ….. MOS 0321 .( Job ) skill . We practiced all the time .
You drop off 4 – 4 man teams at night a Mile from the little Boat . Remember we have night vision equipemnt .
They Swim underwater until they reach the Boat from Four different angles .
Then underneath the Boat they place 3-4 oz pods of C2 in 8 places quietly .
They blow the charges at the same time sinking the boat instantly . Leaving the Pirates to scramble away for their lives
Our Weapons are water proof as is our Knives(grin) . The Pirates weapons are not water proof and don’t know how to fight in the water especially in a surprise MIND BLOWING SUDDEN ATTACK …..We do !!!!!!!
The truth is you can easily take them out and save the American Captain while he swims away at a safe distance WE SHOUT TO HIM IMMEDIATELY…GET AWAY … GET AWAY .
The Jet Speed Boat the minute the Charges are ignited starts rushing to the area and will be there within 3 Minutes .
All Terrorist must be killed .
Mission Accomplished !
THEY PLAY THEY PAY WITH THEIR LIVES .
Hoooo Rrrrrr !
The problem I have with the ‘no small boats’ solution is that there is a very large number of actual fisherman from both Somalia and Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. No matter what solution is taken there will be side effects. If cutting off a food supply to Northern Somalia is a side effect of this action.
Of course the truth isn’t quite so simple. Some pirate ships were spotted with nets out until shortly before they decided to board
This also goes to what an utter fool Obama is. These pirates walked into our sights by boarding U.S. vessels (they also abducted a sea-going tug, I understand) and he could have pulled the trigger and/or done something decisive to improve hsi image and rescind some of the damage he did from his “Nutless U.S.A.” tour last week.
Does he?
No, he ducks the issue, his idiot VPOTUS testily claims the matter is getting ‘around the clock’ attention, and the pant-suited SOS pant-load laughs the whole thing off with the foreign minister of Morocco.
Meanwhile, Kerry calls for hearings (which should strike fear in their hearts), and the WaPo comes out with above-and-below-the-fold coverage of The First Poop Machine.
Not quite helicopters crashing in the Iranian desert, but give The Alleged Hawaiian time, it’s been less than 100 days.
..meanwhile, I vote for ReConUSMC for POTUS.
The President is “doing nothing” and everybody comments that he is making “mistakes”.
I insist, these are not “mistakes”. This is his strategy.
IF America must be weakened, because America is the ONLY real obstacle for the international subversion THEN the cuts on the defense budget, the “dialogue” with Iran, the “doing nothing” about North Korea and the pirates AND ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE that the world will throw at us are not “mistakes” but a precise subversive strategy.
The only political point today is this: will the opposition accept to become just “dissent” in a semi-totalitarian semi-socialist regime or will it be able to call The People to PEACEFULLY defend the Republic ?
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
David, what exactly are the pirates victims guilty of?
No matter what we do, “innocents” will get hurt. There is no perfect solution. The best non-perfect solution is the one that has been done for thousands of years.
Hang the sons-a-bitches.
We have the technology, proven in Iraq, to finger print every mothers son in Somalia. Do it, then match those prints to ones left behind on hijacked ships. When you get a hit, throw a rope over the closest tall structure and hoist that SOB up. No silver bullet here, no instant gratification. It will take years of effort.
Outbreaks of piracy occur every century or so. They all follow a pattern. The pirates get bold enough to become a pain in the backside to authorities. Then the authorities track them down and hang them. Then after the pirates are pruned back a tad, the authorities loose interest and in a few generations the pirates make a come back.
That is what will happen this time. The only question is ‘have the authorities reached the point where they are willing to do what needs doing’? I would say no, just because we are still talking about doing something instead of talking about whether or not that something is working.
I remember reading somewhere that the Romans would go thru the little villages that supported pirates and cut off the thumbs of the young men. You can herd goats without thumbs, you cannot be a sailor without them. I never found a second source for that story, so it remains a rumor. It does sound like a Roman solution.
A thousand plus years later, the US Navy ran up and down that same coast bombarding it. That stopped it for a while. Nowdays, those sailors are making too much money smuggling to do piracy.
Just heard…Captain Smith has been freed.
3 of his captors killed, one pirate injured.
Except for the injured pirate, well done, Navy!
Thanks, lads.
First, let me say, I agree 100% with NO. 5. He is right on target!!
And now, everyone, turn on your tvs, and wait for our president to go on in all his glory and take credit for the freeing of the hostage. Mind you, there has been all kinds of pressure on him for the past few days to get off the dime and get something done. The mere thought that someone like him could actually delay the rescue makes me sick. Well, now, he can appear to be the “Great Savior” and bask in the admiration of all and sundry.
AN EASY ANSWER IS TO ATTACK ANY VESSEL THAT APPROACHES WITH OUT PERMISSION. HOW HARD IS THAT? THESE SHIPPING COMPANY’S WILL SPEND MILLIONS ON INSURANCE, DELAYS, AND RANSOM INSTEAD OF A FEW 50 CALS TO PROTECT THEIR SHIPS. IT ALSO SHOW HOW PUSSYFOOTED THE WHOLE SO CALLED CIVILIZED WORLD HAS BECOME WHEN WE DON’T HAVE THE BALLS TO PROTECT OUR SHIPS FROM SIMPLE BANDITS. ANYONE WANT TO START A PRIVATE MERCENARY FORCE TO HIRE OUT TO THE SHIPPING COMPANY’S? IT HAS TO BE CHEAPER THAT SENDING SHIPS 2700 MILES AROUND OR WASTING TIME PLAYING WITH PIRATES. ARE WE ALL SUCH LEGAL PUSSY THAT WE CAN’T EVEN THINK OR ACT.WHAT GOOD IS SPENDING BILLIONS ON A USELESS UN?
Captain Phillips has been freed, three of the four pirates killed, and if we had any kind of leadership in the White House right now, we’d sink a number of fishing boats in Somalia right now with the message being that we’ll do even more damage the next time a ship is hijacked.
We should immediately hang the fourth pirate in the docks of Mogadishu as well. Let every would-be pirate see what the consequences could be for his actions if he choses to engage in piracy.
Well, it appears that the captain has been rescued and three terrorists [pirates] have been killed. Praise Allah. The only good pirate is a dead pirate. That goes double for Muslim pirates.
Hell …. TRIPLE!!
# 5 David Thomson:
Add to what you wrote Obama’s dellusional, self-agrandizing notion that his gradfather was among those who liberated Auschwitz.
I agree with you about the decay of standards at elite schools, but the decay of education in this country is much wider and deeper. Sean Hannity keeps saying on his radio talk show that “we almost single-handedly liberated the world from the Nazis,” apparently ignorant of the huge/decisive contribution of the Soviets, or incapable to deal with facts that challenge his all-american, all-the-time-patriotic, reductive frame of mind.
For the students and graduates of Harvard, Columbia, Yale, etc. who read this blog, so that they bring their knowledge up to date with that on the low-brow Internet: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army.
You should find some comfort, though, in that it was the “Reds” and not your despised “yankees” who did it.
Today being Easter Sunday and the safe release of the American Captain has special meaning to all Americans. The usual neo-cons reaction of fighting and killing and their mocking of President’s Obama ideology of talking and negotiating is clear . Are the Rushpublicans angry that more American servicemen are not put in harm’s way? Talk is always better than war. On this Easter Sunday, we need to pray and thank the Lord to protect President Obama.
#4 Ryan:
“Attack the poverty of the region. Somalia has, among other things, minerals, shipping ports, arable land, etc., that is more than able to make money. Get money making ventures into the country and employ the local populace, so there are places to turn other than crime.”
i hope you don’t have radical leftists among your frieds, for they’d let you loose as a “neo-colonialist,” ’cause that’s what you are advocating, right? Can’t Somalis take care of themselves??
Has anyone actually identified these “pirates”? I think they’re either ACORNers or some caucus members lost at sea in search of a fast buck. Either way, the behavior is the same. Obama isn’t commenting because he doesn’t see anything wrong with this kind of action toward a US citizen. Hang on to your hats. This is just the beginiing.
You guys are so stupid it is laughable. Too bad Obama authorized the rescue. You guys would have preferred the Captain die just so you could blame Obama. Your hate blinds what little judgment you have
So… we negotiated (which also serves the purpose of wearing down the hostage takers), negotiations failed and we took action. Is it really that hard to understand the process without trying to weave some complicated narrative about how Obama hates america?
Hey, maybe you morons here haven’t heard the news yet but the Navy freed the captain and killed 3 pirates. This is just more right wing garbage served up by this bow tie wearing nasty geek. Of course, this “intellectual” seems to forget that piracy has been around for like 3 millenia and this Somalian stuff has been going on for years while your retard hero was president. But it’s all Obama’s and the liberal’s fault, what else can I expect from a scheiss blogger like Kimballs
Yeah Kryel Waythum
They should have showed some spine and mowed the protestors all down with miniguns, that would make moral civilized people like you feel really good!
We got the boat, the crew and the captain. Three of the four pirates are dead, and the fourth is in custody.
You can all relax now. While you were armchair quarterbacking what you’d do if you were Steven Seagal, the thing got done and done right, with no loss of American lives.
East your chocolate bunnies and take a nap.
Bilgeman (#41)
The problem, as I understand it, is that each overseas port of call has different restrictions and rules for handling arms in port – sometimes forbidding them entirely. For a merchant ship to carry arms would mean an impossible amount of paperwork, and possibly a seized ship.
Kudos for Obama!!
It isn’t often–indeed, I have never done it before–do I toss congratulations, and a deep-felt thanks, to our president-in-training, Barack Obama but when kudos are deserved they should be accorded.
On this Easter Sunday, Obama sent bunny hugs to the family of Captain Courageous Richard Phillips, skipper of the Maersk Alabama, by (apparently) authorizing four of our equally brave Navy Seals to rescue him from captivity by Muslim Somali pirates.
Of course, kudos should be spread around among Captain Phillips, the Seals, U.S. Naval Central Commander Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, the crew of the USS Bainbridge, and everyone else involved in the rescue effort. However, as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, Obama deserves our plaudits.
Reports indicate that Captain Phillips heroically dove overboard from the small boat on which he was being held captive by the pirates who had tried to seize his ship, which was the second time within 3 days that he tried to escape. This time, Seal rescuers were at the ready and used the opportunity to stage an assault on his four Somali captors, killing three and capturing one in the ensuing firefight.
Vice Admiral Gortney “paid tribute to ‘an incredible team effort’ and said he was ‘extremely proud of the tireless efforts of all the men and women who made this rescue possible.’ ” President Obama chimed in by saying, “He was very pleased that Capt Phillips had been rescued and that his courage was a ‘model for all Americans.’ “
You can say that again, Mr. President! He added that “he was resolved to deal with the threat of piracy in the region:” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7996087.stm.
We will have to see how that resolve plays out but as of now it must be admitted that Obama showed more gumption than anyone could have reasonably expected. Former President Jimmy Carter would probably have dithered, waffled, and negotiated for a year before screwing everything up. Fresh off his “Apology Tour” of Europe, Obama may have learned something, namely that sucking up and kissing ass only leads to loss of face, dignity, and national pride.
All in all, it was a commendable rescue on the part of everyone involved even if the message of dispatching naval warships and demonstrating that America still believes no one should try treading on us in the future may not immediately register with soul-less Islamic terrorists/pirates.
Let’s hope that if their acts of piracy on the high seas don’t cease, our president will summon up the additional gumption and emulate President Thomas Jefferson by sending our navy and marines to the shores of Mogadishu to wipe out piracy as Jefferson did on the shores of Tripoli.
May the good captain’s wife Andrea Phillips and all the rest of his family and friends enjoy a very Happy Easter! They deserve it.
(http://genelalor.com/)
What a bunch of pathetic dopes
‘The Age of Obama is shaping up to be another age of “negotiation,” i.e., an age of accommodation and capitulation.’
Looks like the negotiations didn’t work out too well (from the pirates POV), and the administration decided not to capitulate.
Good job by President Obama and our navy.
Can’t stand the man, but when he does something right…you gotta give him his due.
No American lives lost, pirates killed or captured. It don’t get no better than that.
#65 Paul:
“The problem, as I understand it, is that each overseas port of call has different restrictions and rules for handling arms in port – sometimes forbidding them entirely.”
This is true.
On some of my jaunts through the South China Sea, we’d sometimes pick up “boat people”, or more ominously, run across derelict boats.
It is customary to sink such craft, since they pose a hazard to safe navigation.
A captain of the line I worked for used his issued .38 revolver to put holes in one such hull, and when he arrived in Japan, they flipped out and made him account, on paper, for each and every round he had fired.
Such is the power of governmental hoplophobia.
“For a merchant ship to carry arms would mean an impossible amount of paperwork, and possibly a seized ship.”
And yet, all US ship captains are allowed, and known, to carry a loaded revolver in their safes. This is understood to be used in putting down mutinies by the crew,(okay to shoot your own seamen, but not to shoot pirates), and is tolerated by the nations we make ports of call in.
With minimal bother, though, ships could be credibly armed. We also carry duty-free stores such as cigarettes, and these stores are locked and sealed by the Port State’s Customs authorities, (usually one or two bottles light of Johnny Walker Red for “baksheesh”). There’s no reason that once in the territorial waters of a civilized state that the arms locker couldn’t likewise be locked and sealed.
Some US vessels have weapons, the ones on military charter, but I prefer to say no more on that subject.
So many examples, so little time:
3. John Casteel: . . . “A lead at Drudge says everything we need to know: Somali pirates “not afraid of Americans.” Since our president apparently believes that doing anything that would cause fear would be dishonorable, why should they be afraid? ”
WRONG!
18. Mark in Texas: . . . “Don’t expect any kind of serious US response until after January 20, 2013 at the earliest.”
WRONG!
21. JFP: . . . “But today, we’ve got leftists who worry about the other guy losing his life. Sheesh! Dominating the pirates would be so mean. It would be like those horrid imperialists of old. It would be so cowboy-like. We can use negotiation instead of force.”
WRONG!
30. PatriotUSA: . . . “When the french outgun us in a similar situation, that is quite an embarrassment for this administration. But, it is quite obvious they do not care too much for one American captain, a damn brave one at that. Wonder how BHO and his ilk would have reacted had he been a muslim American captian taken hostage?”
WRONG!
35. Vaughn:. . . “Maybe Obama will offer them asylum, they can shack with his ‘auntie’, while we determine if they are guilty.”
WRONG!
38. Spinoneone: . . . “Obambi’s administration is pro-marxist, anti-military, and totally afraid of taking any casualties outside the Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan theater of operations.”
WRONG!
46. Войска ПВО: . . . “This also goes to what an utter fool Obama is . . . he could have pulled the trigger and/or done something decisive to improve hsi image and rescind some of the damage he did from his “Nutless U.S.A.” tour last week. Does he? No, he ducks the issue”
WRONG!
48. Sherab Zangpo . . . “The President is “doing nothing” and everybody comments that he is making “mistakes”. I insist, these are not “mistakes”. This is his strategy.”
WRONG!
59. imyou: . . . “Obama isn’t commenting because he doesn’t see anything wrong with this kind of action toward a US citizen. Hang on to your hats. This is just the beginning.”
WRONG!
41. Bilgeman: . . . “A lot of good comments showing basic common sense in this thread.”
WRONG! (And thanks for brining it on home, Bilgepump.)
ALL WRONG ALL THE TIME. (I smell a tagline for the next RNC convention.)
#70 oomo/ooyo/oo-ever:
“WRONG! (And thanks for brining it on home, Bilgepump.)”
Ah, and how many decades at sea on merchant ships do YOU have, oh my grody little blog-slave?
None.
When the subject is internet self-caricature or techniques for giving anonymous men service at a rest-stop bathroom stall glory-hole, we will then all bow to YOUR level of experience and expertise.
How does it feel to know that your sole worth to humanity is the regular facility with which you spontaneously make an ass of yourself, and the skills you have with your mouth and your fingers?
You may speak, grody little blog-slave. Your gracious Blog Master has acknowledged your latest effort at buffoonery.
“The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in “imminent danger” of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said”.
Will someone please tell me what O’Bambi has to do with this?
The “split second” decision was made by the commander of the ship. Now we have more O’Bama bots trying to somehow make it a heroic action of the meaningless liar in the WH.
Beyond belief – has to come out of Hollywood
I’ve never understood why we don’t arm the merchant ships that go through that area. It would be even better if we did it in such a way that the pirates didn’t know what they were getting into until it was too late for them. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Obama Administration thinks this is a military issue, but they did, after thinking about it, confront the issue head-on by killing the individuals involved. I think judicial use of the old Q ship trick would have an appropriate result.
In response to 5. Author David. You must work for the RNC. Who is the head of your party now? Is it that fat drug addict, college dropout? You guys are un-F%$*Believable!
Yes it’s easy to be head of the law review at Harvard. Piece of cake! Wait we could have a VP that took 6 years to grad from journalism school in Idaho. Yes that Would be wonderful. You Betcha.
John Keegan is the wisest, most tempered and thoughtful historian I know (and I have read nearly all of his books). I was taken aback that he would say something so boldly militant. That should tell the reader something.
If you go to his original article, it is amazing how many commenters nay-say, and think it is impossible to stamp out the pirates. I say, if they did it with wooden ships, we can do it with the U.S. Navy.
It will just take some will from our leaders.
Oh crap, IT IS impossible!
Too 74 Ken .
YOU JERK OFF .
Your Boy though though there 57 States ….. Didn’t know that raising Capitol Gains hurt the GDP ? Duh !
Of course Clinton lowered the Capitol gains taxes helping the economy that knew damn well better .
Clinton lowered Social Welfare and Entitlement programs AS WELL ….. Your Boy is doubling them in a bad economy and TRYING TO GIVE US A TRILLION DOLLAR TAX INCREASE WITH ””’CARBON CREDITS TAXES ”THAT EFFECTS EVERYONE .
YOUR A VERY , VERY DUMB MAN BUT OF COURSE THAT IS HOW A MAN THAN WANTS GOVT, TO TAKE CARE OF HIM SPEAKS !
DUMBO ……. OUR GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER DIDN’T GO TO COLLEGE ……. A. LINCOLN
21 OF OUR 25 GREATEST INVENTIONS WERE DONE BY THOSE THAT DIDN’T GO TO COLLEGE OR HAD LITTLE COLLEGE .
YOU NEED HELP !
Poor ReConUSMC thinks that shouting is a substitute for logic
71. Bilgeman: . . . “Ah, and how many decades at sea on merchant ships do YOU have, oh my grody little blog-slave?”
And that has what to do with what? Put down the bottle, gobby.
How many decades do you have as special envoy to the Vatican? A-HA! Just as I suspected. You have a child’s facility for truth avoidance. It’s charming . . . in a three-year-old girl. But in an adult it is disappointing and pathetic and ultimately the root of our greatest problems in society . . . the refusal to take responsibility, the lack of fundamental courage it takes to admit you’re wrong, the blind ideological rage that inspires idiots to grab guns and shoot innocents. You and the sub-chunks like you are the reason America has stalled over the last 20 years. You have squandered our greatness on oil-fueled nation building, sacrificed our potential because you’d rather whine about gay marriage and AK 47s. You’re a small, petty and unenlightened man who’s been beaten down by the world and now you want revenge because your glory days have passed you by. If only you weren’t lost in an alcoholic haze with nothing to look forward to but another Sunday at church and another Saturday at the strip club. Feel cheated? Guess what, the world couldn’t care less.
Man oh man, is it nice to get actual information about some of this stuff, like the reasons merchant ships aren’t routinely armed.
So much better than the latest bubble gum popper spewing on “the news” or in writing, someone with no real depth or knowledge other than what they’ve been told in the last 5 minutes.
76. ReConUSMC: . . . And so you reveal the root of your angst . . . education. More specifically, your lack of education. Take my advice, don’t harbor this self-doubt about your intelligence. Some of the nicest people I know are welders.
OBAMA USED MILITARY TO ADVANCE DOMESTIC AGENDA
The real pirates are in Washington DC. Obama followed Bush template to curry public favor.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/pirates-obama-does-bush-thing.html
#78 Grody blog-slave:
“You have squandered our greatness on oil-fueled nation building, ”
“Our” greatness?
The only thing “great” about you is the perfect circle you can make with your mouth and how thoroughly you’ve conquered your gagging reflex.
“You’re a small, petty and unenlightened man who’s been beaten down by the world and now you want revenge because your glory days have passed you by”
Perhaps so, and yet I am indisputably your Blog-Master, whom you follow from thread to thread to entertain and amuse by your prattling half-witticisms.
“And that has what to do with what?”
Simply a statement of fact that you have utterly no experience about life spent working on a ship, so you really have no standing whatsoever to pronounce me “WRONG” in this field.
I take no pride in showing you the depth of your ignorance, it’s rather like shooting dairy cows with a high-powered rifle…mildly entertaining, but not at all challenging.
Quite a few trolls on this thread. Mr. Kimball must have hit a nerve. Please don’t feed the trolls.
Obama deserves minimal credit for at least being smart enough not to handcuff the Navy’s response. Hopefully his response to pirates vowing revenge will also be the proper one: If you harm one hair on an American sailor’s head, then we will obliterate your shipping and its home ports.
I do believe that arming U.S. merchant vessels is the best solution. Deputization is the traditional American solution to the problem of too much territory and too little professional law enforcement. Legal issues can be resolved by the State Department. Armaments can be dismounted and stowed in an locked arms locker for port calls. I see no reason why any port willing to accept calls by Navy vessels would not also be willing to accept armed merchantmen.
I will be very surprised if Obama adopts that solution. He is a statist, and desires to have all citizens rely on the all-powerful Government to solve their problems, instead of solving them for themselves.
I was going to say that one of my own was right about something for once, since the Navy did exactly the right thing, but then he went and ruined it by ranting like he always does.
77. The Shadow:
Poor ReConUSMC thinks that shouting is a substitute for logic
_____________________________________________________________
We don’t Puzzy Foot around ……..
We Learned from Left and Obama’s attack Dog with Rush , Sarah Pallins, Glenn Beck and Bush You Jerk .
I used ‘FACTS ” that is Logic …. duh !
80. one of my own:
76. ReConUSMC: . . . And so you reveal the root of your angst . . . education. More specifically, your lack of education. Take my advice, don’t harbor this self-doubt about your intelligence. Some of the nicest people I know are welders.
______________________
You Light weight Socialist ! I am the Former President of Sealy “Posturepedic “Canada …. USA Furniture Div .
and am a Internationally well known Sofa designer .
I am quite wealthy and also own and Estate here is Race Horse Country of VA .
ReConUSMC,
One of the things going on in the blog world right now is a lengthy and well-financed psy-op being run by Soros and Obama organizations, targeting conservative blog sites. Their job is to harass, deflect, disrupt, and in general demoralize us. To make us think it’s all pointless. This is why I try to exercise as much restraint as I can: to not feed the trolls. Most of the time I don’t address them directly, even if they try to suck me in. In fact, I don’t read most of what they write, perhaps only skimming them now and then. If I comment about them, the comments are very general references to the themes and ideas they are injecting into the thread’s discussion.
The other reason why I don’t read them is because I spent a decade of my life over on the Far Left, but not as an activist. Mainly as a bookish aspiring revisionist Marxist intellectual who wanted to integrate those ideas into systematic theology. But I broke with Marxism when I determined, after exhaustive searching, that utopian thought cannot be redeemed, and it cannot be reconciled with human nature and the irreducible reality of evil.
86. RicoUSMC . . . I must say your skill with the written word would seem to support your claim. It’s an certainty.
82 BilboPump . . . .”Simply a statement of fact that you have utterly no experience about life spent working on a ship, so you really have no standing whatsoever to pronounce me “WRONG” in this field.”
I wasn’t commenting on whether you, Comrade BPump, had maritime experience. Nobody cares about that. Let me put it this way . . . it’s not about YOU. It’s about Obama’s response to the pirates and how it contradicted the certitude of people predicting failure or inaction on his part – predictions that you hailed as “good comments showing basic common sense.” Again, WRONG on all counts. Why you insist on making it about you is quite sad really. Now, go down into the basement, dig out that duffle bag, relive a few memories, pour several drinks, lament the passing of time, weep and snork into your sleeve, get ahold of yourself. Then go to bed. Wake up and try to deal with the present again tomorrow.
#89 grodious little blog-slave:
“It’s about Obama’s response to the pirates and how it contradicted the certitude of people predicting failure or inaction on his part – predictions that you hailed as “good comments showing basic common sense.””
Metamucil still ain’t busted your internal log-jam, huh, puddinhead?
I strongly suspect that your pantlaod is backing up into your cranial void space.
You really ARE a very entertaining little mutant in your abysmal ignorance, y’know?
I’m not feeding the trolls: I’m making them eat the peanuts outta my %&^#$%@*&, which where all their euro-marxism originates from anyway
#90. Bilgeman, hilarious, much obliged
Now hear this, 0 got out of the way, (after 2 excruciating days of procrastination and micro-management seminars), and let the navy seals do what it is they were trained to do: Exterminate the enemies of humanity, so that real live human beings could be rescued and get back on with their productive lives, and pay for 0′s wards of the state with their tax payments.
If 0 did the right thing, [despite the dithering and the political opportunism]– fine.
So just what is it we are supposed to do? Give the little childe a cookie?
And prostrate ourselves in praise of 0′s idolatry? I think not. No mercy: he is destroying the office and expects what in return? Was (is) there any mercy or respect given (to the office) during the 8 year assault on the executive office that 0 himself continues today? No. Goddammit No. This man is a menace.
Do the right thing 0: you have missed, and destroyed every opportunity up until now to seize the opportunities placed before you to show conviction and resolve, and squandered them all to placate the most extreme elements of the most radical, reactionary left wing freak show that is abortion advocacy, “attorneys” for gitmo vermin, a “national police force, funded every bit as much and more than the military” Acorn fundin to the tune of hundreds of millions, bribery and coruption to the tune of 9 trillion [government budget office projection], etc.
I don’t pay much attention to the trolls except to monitor their feeble, illiterate grammar, and expose all their false, straw man arguments that they pick from 0′s talking points memos.
“he issued an apology to the Somoli pirates as did President Bush did when China held a 24 man American Navy EP-3E crew hostage for 11 days”
China is a functioning government and Somalia is not
So why send a protection racket any “aid” money which 0 is proposing to do?
merchant ships are not armed due to business concerns; the shipping companies have thought it through and they have not (so far) chosen to accept the costs and liabilities. it makes perfect sense. we long ago ceased concerning ourselves with what might be the right, or at least bright, thing to do and think only in terms of monetary cost. giving our president credit for allowing the rescue of captain phillips is obscene. being held at gunpopint by pirates places one in imminent danger. when the good guy leapt into the sea, the navy could hae destroyed the pirates and/or lifeboat. end of problem. apparently, he had initially not allowed a rescue. great job.
You have to get to the root of the problem, just killing pirates on the seas will not make them go away. Somalia is huge, there are millions of others the clans can recruit. Besides, aren’t you Republicans complaining about spending? Who’s going to pay for all this anyway? The Somali coast line is 2000 miles long, we don’t have the man power to patrol another counties coast waiting for pirates to trike. You people are ridiculous, guns will not solve all of our problems.
LET’S HIJACK THE PIRATES BUSINESS MODEL
They are doing way better than Wall Street!
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/hijacking-pirates-business-model.html
fred
thanks for inventing yet another conspiracy. But who would bother when Kimball’s utter lack of logc and integrity are so blatant that any honest intelligent person can drive a tank through it’s holes.
That’s right, someone disagrees with crackpotted morons so they have to be some evil conspirator, planning the downfall of hte US. Get your gun and web gear and stand guard duty soldier!
So you once bought all the left wing hokum, now you buy all the right wing hokum hook, line and sinker, because you are just a dumb sucker who can’t think outside some labyrinth of canned crackpot theories and conspiracies! Wanna buy some land in Florida?
David Thomson:
talking about Harvard, perfect example for you: W! Time to get rid of the family connection clauses.
The fact that barbarism is never finally defeated is irrelevant. Why would we be discussing barbarism or piracy today if it had withered or been defeated long ago?
The British navy shut down the slave trade market around the circumference of Africa in the 19th century. no small feat. (The circumference of africa is equal to the circumference of the earth)
Oh yeah, they shut it down, all except for the Saudi slave trade which continues to this day.
the saudi’s slave traders would kidnap east africans, and when the British ships of superior speed and range approached the Saudi boats, the slavers would slit the throats of their captives with a scimitar and dump them into the sea, ridding themselves of the contraband. They should have taken all thay saudi trash back somewhere to serve as slaves themselves, in a nice turnabout, but slavery was verboten, by then (now) wasn’t it?
And besides, it wouldn’t have put an end to the practice of piracy or slavery, or so these apologists for slavery and piracy keep insisting.
So let’s look instead at the “root causes” of slavery and piracy, now shall we? If we want to look at where slavery and piracy originate, then we must look at the “structure” of those criminal organisations who still engage in it.
Jesus said “there will always be wars, and rumours of war”.
Pirates and tribes love to boast of wielding “war” and carelessly spreading rumours of war, on their “enemies”.
And of course, the media will tart them up, and romanticise them, (re- distract from) the pirates and the slaver tribes, as (here we go again) the poor, the oppressed, the “freedom fighters” , the “america haters” just like children playing with matches and petrol cans…
All from the safety and protection of their Eloi parapet.
and this is also true as well for the primitive, superstitious structure that is the tribe, the clan, (the crime syndicate), where the practice of slavery and primitivism originates, and still flourishes…
That the British stamped out the slave trade in all but one place (the saudi route back from africa) only goes to show how much unfinished businass there remains with these barbarous tribes and clans.
Meanwhile, the president teabaggs the saudi slaver in full view of the cameras, (with only one hand), then denies it, saying he was bent over to grasp the putrid slaver of his east african ancestors with both hands, when the video, and photos contradict this, and show his left hand by his side, dutifully following the ‘custom’ and protocol when dealing with muslim tribes.
I wonder how many, working so diligently, think they are going to get bumped up to the presidents personal teabagger, I can think of one here tonight; he reads “mastubation for dummies”, because he was told that he is the one he has been waiting for.
He’s going to junior college, and majoring in “Off Topic Studies”, with a minor in personal attacks and regurgitation. His mom, or one of his handlers has called him away, because its past his bedtime, and he isn’t going to get that world of warcraft console unless he does. But he wants to share his dream with us of being lifted away from these boards, and teabagging the president.
I suspect he is also one of those food perverts, who puts his boogers on the pizza dough. But then again, its obvious he has never worked or held a real job before in his life: as he has never learned to show anyone, least of all his frushtrated and dissappointed self, any respect whatsoever.
Pity this hopeless sinner, for he is days away from his suicide
And for the rest of you soros teabaggers:
George soros became a National Socialist (NAZI) informant at the age of 10, informing on others from his neighborhood to the Gestapo and SS, so to be sent to death camps; he’ll inform on his neighbors to spare his neck, but after he’s done with you, what will you expect in return? A job at staats polizei?
You should consider the source of whom you serve. He will betray you too, he’s betrayed every other in his path so far.
Yesterday, in 2 separate incidents, pirates were captured and then released. Read about it here:(www.mistermoleman.com, second post).
Europe (and possibly now America) are now truly committed to a legalistic, constitutional-rights-protected, police response to every attack, from terrorism to piracy to direct military attacks on our soil. We would do well to recall Supreme Court Justice Jackson’s (dissenting) comment in the 1930’s Terminiello case, that “the Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.” War cannot be waged by policemen armed with Miranda cards; the UN has tried that many times, from watching genocide in Rwanda to watching rocket attacks on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Obama got off to a good start on confronting pirates, using the right kind of diplomatic negotiations (”Saying ‘Nice doggie’, while looking around for a rock.”) Now he needs to step up to the big question: Who polices the seas? In the past, the answer was simple, whether it was piracy or the slave trade: the dominant navy.
We all learned the clever line from the Vietnam War that “we can’t be the cops of the world.” What we haven’t yet learned is the true nature of a world without cops, with only Dutch and Canadian crossing guards.