Obama and the Pirates
You may not realize that the loonier parts of the right have been in an absolute frenzy about the Maersk Alabama incident. (e.g. this moron). Like everything else--the existence of trees, for example--this incident shows that Obama is a failure and probably the Antichrist and he was on the Grassy Knoll and is responsible for Iraq, 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.
O.k., now the obvious question is: given that Obama authorized the use of force, and Navy Seals took out the pirates, is this a great victory for Obama? Does this show he is a two-fisted POTUS that nobody can f*ck with?
My prediction: of course not! Listen you barking moonbats--get it through your heads: nothing Obama can possibly do will constitute evidence that he is a good president. NOTHING!
I'm not sure how it will go, but there will be some convoluted explanation for why the capture of the hostage is Obama's fault, but his freeing is not to Obama's credit. I'm sure Big Pharma Limbaugh, for example, will have some aimlessly wandering free verse to this effect.
This is, of course, one of the best indicators of intellectual dishonesty and general nuttiness: everything counts in favor of your theory and nothing counts against it.
So far as I can tell, Obama had basically nothing to do with this either way. There's no way the attack had anything to do with him, and the decision to authorize force was a no-brainer. So none of this counts for or against him. But the smart money says that the anti-Obama loons will not see it this way...
You may not realize that the loonier parts of the right have been in an absolute frenzy about the Maersk Alabama incident. (e.g. this moron). Like everything else--the existence of trees, for example--this incident shows that Obama is a failure and probably the Antichrist and he was on the Grassy Knoll and is responsible for Iraq, 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.
O.k., now the obvious question is: given that Obama authorized the use of force, and Navy Seals took out the pirates, is this a great victory for Obama? Does this show he is a two-fisted POTUS that nobody can f*ck with?
My prediction: of course not! Listen you barking moonbats--get it through your heads: nothing Obama can possibly do will constitute evidence that he is a good president. NOTHING!
I'm not sure how it will go, but there will be some convoluted explanation for why the capture of the hostage is Obama's fault, but his freeing is not to Obama's credit. I'm sure Big Pharma Limbaugh, for example, will have some aimlessly wandering free verse to this effect.
This is, of course, one of the best indicators of intellectual dishonesty and general nuttiness: everything counts in favor of your theory and nothing counts against it.
So far as I can tell, Obama had basically nothing to do with this either way. There's no way the attack had anything to do with him, and the decision to authorize force was a no-brainer. So none of this counts for or against him. But the smart money says that the anti-Obama loons will not see it this way...
posted by Winston Smith at
3:52 PM
8 Comments:
Based on the reaction at Top Conservatives on Twitter, or #tcot, the reaction seems to be: Obama had nothing to do with the rescue. But, of course, he had everything to do with the hostage standoff! Here are some other reactions:
@violenceworker: RT @RoSiTa08: Dear Obama will you allow pirates (terrorist) to sue U.S. for the "pain and suffering" the Navy Seals caused them? #tcot
However, here was a rare admission of error:
@policygal: Navy Seals kick pirate ass! I take back what I said earlier - hats off to Obama for authorizing the mission that saved Captain Phillips.
Maybe my support of the President is biasing my view of this, but I think Obama does deserve some credit for the positive outcome, though the primary credit goes to the SEALs. Obama could have tried to negotiate longer with the pirates, and that may have led to something bad. It seems that the "negotiations" were just a ruse, a way to wait for the right time for the SEALs to act. On the other hand, if Obama had given the Navy instructions to do something rash, and Captain Phillips died or was badly injured, Obama would get some blame and I think that would be justified. Obviously Obama can't be blamed for the Captain being taken hostage, but once the military got involved in the rescue operation, Obama as Commander in Chief bears some responsibility for their actions, IMHO.
While I do see this individual event as a success for Obama I do have to say that the overall handling of the major pirate issue off the coast of Africa as a failure on his part and prior to his term, the failure of President Bush to handle this situation. Seems to me we float a carrier task force over there, give all the ships in the area the cell phone number of the carrier and problem solved. You see a pirate on the horizon give us a ring and we send a few F18s to take them out. I think this might be a major step showing we will use our power to protect people of all nations and might get us a little respect in the international community. Why hasn't this happened?
All of that said I am open to the idea that there is some huge flaw in this plan that I can't see but I mean it sounds like a winner to me.
The line, evidently, is that he held back the SEALs. If only he wasn't such a pussy, they'd have gone in and rescued the captain sooner, possibly even before he was kidnapped in the first place.
Actually, the very fact that he wasn't accidentally visiting that very ship, and didn't personally take out the pirates Die Hard-style shows that he is a wimp and a failure.
Going back to "EJC", the conservative blogger WS originally linked to, we now find the headline (with punctuation added):
FREIGHTER CAPTAIN ESCAPES[,] RESCUES OBAMA
Captain Richard Phillips made a successful escape attempt today and gave the United States Navy the opportunity to eliminate 3 of the pirates and wound the forth.
After waiting almost 5 days to be rescued Captain Richard Phillips took it upon himself to make another escape attempt and this one paid off.
The Captain leaped off of the life boat and plunged into the waters giving the United States Navy a clear shot at his captors.
Of course, the events narrated by EJC don't actually square with the published accounts:
Acting with President Obama’s authorization and in the belief that the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, was in imminent danger of being killed by captors armed with pistols and AK-47s, snipers on the fantail of the destroyer Bainbridge, which was towing the lifeboat on a 100-foot line, opened fire and picked off the three captors.
Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.
It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said.
Or:
After snipers, positioned near the fantail of the Bainbridge less than 30 yards from the lifeboat, determined that one of the pirates was aiming an AK-47 at Phillips's back, they opened fire, killing three pirates and taking a fourth into custody.
Phillips, tied up just feet away, was not injured.
I guess the problem lies with those of use stuck in the reality-based community ... ;-)
Hey tehr0x0r - to answer your question why we haven't sent a carrier over, a military dude on CNN yesterday (during their 10 hour there's-no-other-fucking-news marathon coverage of the event) said that the pirates tend to disguise their ships so that people don't realize what's going on until it's too late.
Ok, at least there is some reason, but that said, why not just make a general post, you approach a commercial ship and we are gonna take a shot at you, 350 miles off the coast there is little legitimate reason to have a small boat. I know that most of these take place within 350 miles of the shore but there has got to be a better way. I also have to belive that just the threat of a US carrier force in the area would help calm things down. Lets face it we might be hated by much of the world, but there is almost no one who doesn't at least respect our ability to bomb the heck out of somone who pisses us off and right now an American Aircraft Carrier is the ultimate show of naval power.
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