Biden told us there would be tests for Obama, in this case he has failed.
“The US Navy missed a chance to rescue the American captain held by Somali pirates on a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean when he tried to escape by jumping into the sea.
Captain Richard Phillips fled through a back door in the covered lifeboat about midnight on Thursday local time and began swimming away, US officials said.
At least one pirate jumped in after him and brought him back aboard the boat, which is drifting without fuel, before the nearby US destroyer, USS Bainbridge, could intervene. The incident was captured on video by a US drone overhead. “He didn’t get very far,” one official said.
One of the pirates fired several shots during the escape attempt, and Captain Phillips was seen being helped back into the lifeboat. The US Navy had asked for proof that the skipper was still alive but was not able to talk to him by radio, NBC News said. However, US sailors saw Captain Phillips moving around and talking after his return to the lifeboat, and the Pentagon believes he is unharmed.
The pirates demanded $2 million (£1.4 million) yesterday for the release of Captain Phillips.
The unsuccessful escape attempt and the captain’s uncertain fate threaten to embarrass the Obama Administration, which has seen the US Navy thwarted by four pirates armed with AK47s.
The Bainbridge, backed by drones and surveillance aircraft, was standing guard a few hundred yards from the lifeboat, which had run out of fuel. The frigate USS Halyburton and the assault ship USS Boxer, armed with about two dozen helicopters and attack planes, sailed to the scene yesterday. The tension at the stand-off was intensifying last night as pirates sent for reinforcements, apparently carrying “human shields”, in an effort to assist those holding Captain Phillips hostage. It is believed they contacted fellow pirates by satellite phone.”
So far Barack Obama has been absolutely silent on the taking of an American hostage. He has shown weakness instead of strength, and indecision where he should be decisive. Tammy Bruce notes another example of such dereliction of duty, Jimmy Carter, who botched the operation that would have rescued 444 Americans in Iran in 1980.
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One Response
paul_in_houston
April 11th, 2009 at 11:04 am
1I’ve said this before, just after the election. I don’t see anything here that needs revision…
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On Election Day, the Ace of Spades website posted a picture of two Iraqi women, with purple-stained fingers showing they had voted in an election.
It was a “Get Out The Vote” message, noting that whatever inconveniences YOU may experience by voting, “These women literally risked their lives to vote”.
My first reaction was, “And THE ONE can hardly wait to sell them out”.
Obama’s rhetoric on Iraq, and comments about Israel, showed a casual willingness to sell out allies when convenient.
A commenter asked, “Who appointed us to be their guardians? Why is it America’s job to make sure they are safe?”
Perhaps we’d rather not have the entire world as a nuclear-armed camp, figuring that the more countries with these things, the more risk that some will eventually be used.
Our alliances with these countries ain’t out of the goodness of our heart, but for our own best interests. Sell one out, and I’ll bet you the others will sure take notice.
The commenter seemed to be saying, “To hell with them; let them take care of themselves!”
Ok! But, they might do exactly that, and we might be less than thrilled with the results.
If countries under threat (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan) think that our word is no longer any good, they’ll almost certainly feel the need for nuclear arms as the only real deterrent to someone like China. And note, those countries ALL have the necessary economic, industrial and technical wherewithal to go nuclear. All they need do is make the decision.
Others, in the Middle East, will want them to deter Iran. How about Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Maybe Libya decides that abandoning their efforts was a mistake. THOSE countries may lack the technology, but they can certainly afford to finance it.
It could just go on and on.
THAT could be a very likely consequence of us deciding to just disengage ourselves from these countries.
We’ve tried, for a long time, to convince others that they didn’t need them, because WE would provide the nuclear umbrella.
When they figure they can’t count on us, the whole thing unravels.
If the commenter gets his wish, and they DO take care of themselves, it could get real interesting for us as well.
As we also reside on the same planet, I think it almost impossible we would remain unaffected.
So, standing up for our allies is not just a nice thing to do; it makes the hardest kind of common sense.
Simply put, we protect others in order to protect ourselves.
Abandoning them, selling them out, would be an unbelievably short-sighted (as in STUPID) thing to do, and would hurt us more in the long run. No one would trust an agreement with us; and why should they, given such a record?
Instead of being worth a damn, our word would only be noise.
And that would be tragic, because WE set its’ value, by our actions.
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