Political Commentary, War Commentary

Good Show

17 Comments

This worked out better than I expected:

An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.

One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.

I have to say that I found this grimly amusing:

“The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates,” said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

Arrest and punish kidnappers? Why, that’s crazy talk. At least in Somalia. Fortunately, now, there’s only one to worry about having to deal with. I would have wrapped the three they killed in pigskin and tossed them to the sharks as an example, but I guess these days, that’s crazy talk, too.

Anyway, congratulations to the US Navy, who did their job. And what the hell was the FBI doing there, anyway?

[Update mid afternoon]

What is a “pirate source“?

17 thoughts on “Good Show”

  1. Details are sketchy at the moment but it sounds like the good captain managed to jump into the water once again. My guess is that the Navy then took the opportunity to improve the ventillation of the lifeboat (.50 caliber or better is very good at improving ventilation). As for the report that 3 of the 4 pirates were killed, well, no one is perfect all of the time.

  2. Mr. Simberg,

    You just don’t understand. These Somali clans are engaged in a time-honored, traditional business, and our Western ways (states, liberty, rule of law, etc.) are inappropriate to impose upon them.

    As the Irving Berlin song says, “Whatever they try, we’ve got to reply, in language that they understand.”

    Death, they understand.

  4. Bet the SEALS have a waterproof gyro stabilized 0.50 cal sniper rifle with a night scope. Just get the word from the national command authority and certain pirates are feeding brain matter to the fishes

  6. The FBI was there because the “crime” would have been to hang the pirates. At least, according to international law. Which, for reasons I don’t understand, has changed in favor of piracy.

  8. When they announced the FBI was running the ‘negotiations’, it was spookily like the current season of ’24’, where Jack’s “Counter-Terror Units” have been disbanded and the FBI takes over cases they would have done.

    Except that at least on TV, the FBI wasn’t running an overseas operation.

    One other thing – one has to wonder whether the outrage expressed in some quarters about the initial Obama non-reaction to the incident had something to do with finally giving the green light to shooting the bad guys.

  10. This worked out, and, Obama can claim a lot of
    credit here. The real trick is how pro-active Obama
    will be in preventing another incident. Arming
    merchant vessels, putting marines on board freighters,
    quietly identifying pirate ports and conducting
    punitive raids, getting hot female law enforcement
    officers to sunbathe on confiscated yachts and then
    mixing it up when the pirates come racing up to board.

    If Obama can prevent future incidents then he’s a good
    president, if he ends up with more and worse incidents
    then he’s just adding gasoline to the fire.

    Clinton was slugging it out with Al Qaeda for marginal
    gains. Bush was chasing them with sledgehammers.
    Lets see if Obama can come with a better strategy.

  11. Regrettably, “strategy” is a much overused word.

    For example, making nice w/ Turkey (or Nixon opening relations w/ China) to counter Russia’s influence is strategic move.

    Arming merchantmen, convoying, or pulverizing pirate bases is a tactical one.

  12. Letters of Marque, bounties and Prize Courts. Death they value, death they celebrate, death they should have.

  13. Somebody explain something to me because I am none too smart.

    You and two of your buds are in this tiny boat, at the end of a 75 yard tow rope attached to a U.S. Navy warship. Your other bud is on the warship talking “terms.”

    75 yards is a distance at which a military sniper can floss your teeth. The spaces between each of them, starting on the left side of the uppers, working the way around, and then going on to the lowers.

    You have one American national hostage, yes, but what exactly are you negotiating in this situation?

  16. I’ll give credit to the military, FBI, and Obama on this one. Whatever the negotations were, the end result is what it should have been. 3 dead pirates, one in custody. More importantly, all US civilians alive and well. “Negotations” might have occurred, but the pirates got nothing.

    I wondered for quite awhile why, if we had ships in range, we hadn’t sniped the bad guys. After all, that’s one of the traditional roles of Marines on naval vessels for centuries. I’m probably wrong here, but I’ll accept for a moment that the time spent on this episode was waiting for the best shot. For certain, the US military managed to get close enough (75 yds, then damn close) to make the shot, with the pirates not killing the US Captain.

    And I think its a good thing for now that 1 pirate is alive. Hopefully he can provide some intel on the operations. You don’t need to torture him; he’s already well aware the fate of his comrades. I also hope the extra time spent in this endeavor allowed for other intelligence gathering. This episode is over, but the situation for other civilian vessels remains the same.

  17. I agreed with all those folks asking why this wasn’t a sniper training exercise, right up until I saw pictures of the “lifeboat.” It was a completely enclosed thing. No chance of actually being able to see the pirates.

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