US Captain freed from Somali pirates

At least some good news regarding the festering pirate situation. US Captain held hostage for 5 days finally got rescued by Navy SEALs. Looks like the courageous captain made a second escape attempt and our special forces trained in these kinds of situations reacted.

What is especially important to note is that many speculated that our navy was under direct orders from the top to NOT fire on the pirates. We may never know the truth, but I suspect that the first escaped attempt was simply a botched operation that our SEALs were not prepared to handle. There are all sorts of speculations and rightfully so to suggest that there was absolutely no way that the first attempt was botched, primarily because escape attempts that are closely watched almost always react in gunfire. Still, I find it very hard to imagine that such strict orders would suddenly change from the first attempt to the second.

Conservatives especially are angry and suggest that these orders came from the White House, but despite Obama’s spineless and weak demonstrations thus far – I find it very unlikely that they would pull a stunt like this.

Despite all the huffing and puffing, I am very glad and especially happy for the family of Richard Phillips that this operation was a success and the captain’s bravery has been rewarded.

Still, I am somewhat somber of the realization that unless these pirates are dealt with in a very decisive fashion, using military force, this will not be the last hostage situation that our navy will have to interfere with.

Sailor hostage situation, Obama’s Carter moment?

As you may be aware by now, for the first time in 200 years American sailors have been hijacked by pirates. Apparently the story is not important enough for CNN, but for the families of those individuals involved the importance of this story and their reliance on mass media is something we cannot imagine. As of now, our president has not said one word about this situation and Eric Holder has expressed concern over handling the pirate situation from a legal perspective.

Personally I fail to see what legal complication there can possibly be with PIRATES. Pirates are thieves and murderers, they roam the seas and prey on innocent merchant ships. We have the biggest and most powerful navy in the world, using a combination of air and fast moving destroyers there should only be scraps of pirates left – and the only legal complication is whether or not the torpedoes used to destroy the pirates are environmentally friendly.

Historically speaking, being attacked by Muslim pirates is not entirely unprecedented. You see, the world powers of 200 years ago faced very similar problems. Merchant ships were in constant threat by organized pirate ships from the Barbary coast, and the reasoning behind some of the Barbary nations was quite simple – they were killing infidels. They would capture, take hostage, murder and steal from non muslims and had no problem doing so. While times are different, the threat from muslim aggression is eerily similar. At the time, US policy was a strict non-interventionist and dialog was the course of action. Finally, Thomas Jefferson realized that dialog with crazy murdering Muslims was useless and he built the US Navy. This navy combined with European powers wiped the pirates off the face of the map and the problem was solved. I have simplified the story a bit, but the premise is largely intact. By the way, fun fact – “from the shores of Tripoli” comes from that era a song popularized and often mistakenly linked to WW2.

Fast forward to today and not only has history repeated itself, but our president does not even have the ‘cojones‘ to verbally express to the American people that he is aware of the situation and cares about our sailors. He has time to be on TV, go on Jay Leno, make NCAA picks – but no time to say a few words to the families of the hostages? From a character perspective, this should come as no surprise – after all, Obama’s spineless and liberal approach to anything dangerous or hostile is well known, but with American lives on the line I would expect SOMETHING. I can’t help but draw similarities between Carter’s Iran hostage problem and Obama’s pirate problem. This one will obviously resolve itself much faster and most likely the filthy pirates will get their ransom and continue their work, but the character of our spineless president will further be exposed to an American public that is watching his every move.