“I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of (piracy) in that region,” the commander-in-chief said.
“To achieve that goal we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes,” he said.
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I’m not sure the President really needs to address piracy head-on, in public. A few forceful acts (maybe even a landing party of Marines to destroy a few “fishing” docks), done as quietly as possible, ought to get the message across. The message being: Don’t (ahem) do this stuff any more.
But you have to wonder if the president sticking his neck out like this doesn’t escalate matters unnecessarily. Or put more of our reputation on the line than is warranted. It was bad enough to see the might of the US Navy being held in check by a 16-year-old pirate/”negotiator.” It would be worse still to see the president himself put in that spot.
from the same article.
“Even as the world watched the riveting Phillips drama playing out on the high seas, Somali pirates were boarding other ships. On Saturday, an Italian ship with a crew of 16 was taken hostage.”
Piracy may be the second oldest profession it comes and it goes. It is about time the Somali pirates figured out (had it shown to them) the US is the number one enemy. The only response: Semper Vigilans
This is going to put a serious crimp in “Talk Like a Pirate Day”.
“My administration is committed to ending the fly crisis, and we will now begin gearing up to swat them whenever they buzz around us. To that end, I am asking Congress to appropriate several billion dollars to establish a flyswatting program, and billions more to research and develop a flyswatting approach that will have lasting benefits to the civilized world.”
Here’s where I agree. The President shouldn’t mind his critics and should have continued to (publicly) ignore this issue as much as possible. Making the pirates into Public Enemy Number One (Subsection 4, paragraph 6) only leads to them getting an even more inflated sense of their importance.
To be honest, this is one of those issues where I’m sort of glad we can’t easily back down. The results of a fight between Somali fishermen and the United States Navy are hardly in doubt, so long as the US is actually willing to finish the job. If the President’s reputation is on the line, it makes it less likely that the US will back down. Making sure that you don’t foster unrealistic expectations among Americans is important – you don’t want people thinking it’ll stop tomorrow because Obama said so – but barring that, this is a positive development.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, Obama. His words mean nothing. Obama will say anything. However as noted by Geraghty Law, all of Obama’s statements come with expiration dates, all of them.
It will be Obama’s actions, and not his mere words, which demonstrate his resolve or lack thereof same, to end piracy. I fear the one view piracy as a mere distraction.
There have indeed been some presidents about whom I would believe this.
Obama is not one of them.
For anyone who’s confused about the brackets in the statement – what he actually said was, I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy in that region.
Hahaha! Stupid Bush! I bet John Stewart tells jokes about this one for weeks!
letters of marque
shoot on sight
armed merchantmen
bounties and prize courts.
why are we even having this discussion?