Pirates
 

Now this is how shit should get done. I know there are lots of Obama haters here, and I don't agree with him on everything either, but I have to give him props for giving the ok to take these bitches out if needed. Thanks to the SEAL team who got the job done!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa...own/index.html

Yeah, this will probably go down as Obama saving the day, the SEALS will be forgotten, or criticized

well for obvious reasons they don't, and can't give out the names or pictures of the SEALS. It's just like everything....the workers do all the shit work and the bosses get the credit. ha ha ha

It's Waco on water....awesome!
:t:

enough with this pirate shit... yaaaaaaaaar!!!

How do these fockers get on those huge ass boat and take everyone hostage, from a dingy? I would assume they would only try to board at night, but shoot them suckers as they're climbing the ladder.

Props for what? He waited until the crew took over the ship themselves, by sacrificing the captain. Then, after days of doing nothing, he sends in the Navy, which was only a stone throw away the entire time.

At least when this happened to a French crew, the French instantly sent the Navy in. The French not only were swifter, but of all things, more ballsey than us.

Reminds me of a time, back in the day when Barbary Pirates terrorized our ships and our President, Mr. Jefferson, didn't wait, didn't just negotiate the mariners back, didn't just take the ships back. No, he sent in the Marines to kick the shit out of them in their home bases on land and solve the problem for good. Never heard of pirate kidnappings again for a long time (until the British and the War of 1812).

They pretty much do it from a dingy, and use something like a grapple to climb the sides of the ship.

These large cargo ships don't carry guns for two reasons.
1) insurance costs are actually greater when a crew carries weapons
2) the countries of the ports may not allow crews to carry weapons

I'm sure something is going to change now, but anyway...

Obama 1
Pirates 0

:t:

Well, apparently, in order for a ship to carry guns to arm the crew, it must be classified as a war ship, and not a merchant ship.

Which of course, is retarded.

But hey, that's politics.

Sorry, but the score is more like 0-0. The pirates embarrassed the shit out of us by having the ship's unarmed crew do most of the work and after almost a week, finally loosing because Obama finally found the right person to take advice from. The whole situation was a joke, considering we had Naval bases over in Yemen and UAE. Yet when this happened to the French, it was over in a couple of days, and they didn't have the luxury of having a base 100 miles away. Plus, how did the messiah solve the problem? Send in SEALs to eliminate 2 pirates? Why doesn't he do what Jefferson did to completely eradicate the problem? History has something to say when you ignore the preventative measures...

Also, the crews can "bring guns aboard." It's something called hiding them in a secure place where inspectors wouldn't find them. There's also equipment like a hack saw, shotgun, pistol, and a roomy trench coat.

I am a Republican, and Obama did the right thing here. He could have followed party lines and negotiated/paid them off.

I am not saying I approve of anything else he did, but I can recognize when he does something good. :t:

And I would say the same, if he didn't wait a week to do the right thing and if he didn't wait for the crew to chase the pirates out themselves. Maybe if he acted, of all countries, like the French, I'd be applauding him. But no, he embarrassed us by his long state of inaction.

wtf lol...I would desert our military if I saw that shit coming at me.

Don't mind bassman. He is the king armchair politician that is obviously smarter than everyone else in the entire world. He also never says anything positive.

I'm pretty sure I heard the closest navy ship was over 350 miles away so it's not a matter of snapping their fingers. Look the US navy and President did I good job with the situation. 3 dead pirates and one rescued hostage seems like a win to me.

Hard to be positive when you have an administration that refuses to call terrorism terrorism but instead man-made disasters. However, 350 miles is closer than what the French had. And waiting almost a week to act is despicable. Obama should have sent the SEALs in earlier to prevent the hostage situation that did develop. He should also grow some balls and end this piracy crap since this isn't the first time, nor the last time Somali's have hijacked freighters. Imagine what a terrorist group can do w/ a hijacked tanker, or worse, a LNG carrier. It's time do do what Jefferson did 200 years ago to secure the safety of our mariners.

I don't disagree with acting fast and harshly, but my point is that even if he did everything you said you'd still find away to tear it apart.

hmmm....I think we have a french person in here...what ya think!

I would rather have a German Division infront of me than a french one behind me." - General George S Patton
"The last time the French asked for 'more proof', it came marching into Paris under a German flag" - David Letterman
"I don't know why people are surprised that France won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get the Germans out of France!" - Jay Leno

i want to know what maritime school you guys went to.
Kings Point?
SUNY Maritime?
Mass Maritime?
Cal Maritime?
Maine Maritime?
Great Lakes Maritime?

anyone?? bueller?? bueller??

Yup. There is always someone that will hate your favorite movie, think your girlfriend is ugly, and think that your car is a POS. That's just how people are.

My gf's brother is an Navy Seal Elite Sniper..I wonder if he took one of those shots..:)

It is a lot easier to criticize a leader than to be one.

its possible if he's an "elite" sniper. the seals involved were from DevGru, the seal team formally known as team six.

I think he handled the situation quite well. I mean the U.S. has its hands in a lot of cooke jars at the moment. He used tact by trying to settle the situation peacefully and when that couldn't be gone they used force. Now he is making plans to fight the "pirates" and end this situation once and for all.

As I've said before, if he didn't wait, I'd be applauding.

Also, j_gutta, what plans is he making? Also, these are pirates, the same as terrorists. You don't negotiate w/ these people because you can't.

Yup, that's why I get so pissed off when people on the internet think they freaking are so smart and know everything, like it's hella easy to be the President. The fact is, they don't know shit, all they do is sit around and bitch because it's easy.

Something new with the Navy, I believe Clinton is calling it a Piracy Task Force. Not 100% sure, but you can look it up. I don't think Obama could have just jumped up and said lets go to Somali and start blowing stuff up. I'm sure he had to get details and he wanted to solve the problem without having any dead bodies like before and since it wasn't negotiable they did what the did. In the beginning they were telling him that the "pirates" weren't terrorist and that it was just a bunch of criminals. Now all of a sudden these people have ties with the Taliban. I applaud what he did though.

Oh God, more neo-cons tying everyone to Al Queda. However, it's scary to think how easy it is for a terrorist group to hijack a LNG carrier and crash it into a major port.

The problem though is this isn't the first time. Not the first by the Somalis and especially not the first by the Malaysians (I believe?). The Piracy Task Force is probably a joke, just like the Middle Class one Biden headed up. It's there in name to make us feel good but it probably won't do anything. Not to say we should do a full blown invasion (especially since the Somali government is too weak to do any kind of control) but we need a show of force to stop this.