Captain Phillips Rescued From Somali Pirates by the Navy Seals
Today is a great day for America, Navy seals have rescued Captain Phillips, a man who volunteered to give himself up to pirates in order to save the lives of his crew, and he will soon be returning home to his loved ones.
Before I go any further I must issue a retraction of sorts. I have been highly critical of the president for not making a public statement on the hostage/pirate situation but I had tried not to comment on how he actually handled the situation tactically. But when word came down that Captain Phillips tried to escape and the United States military did not take action I could no longer keep my silence and I wrote a post questioning whether the president ordered the military not to fire on the Somali pirates. I wrote that post yesterday and it now appears that my timing couldn’t have been worse because today the order came down from the president that lethal force could be used if necessary. And that same lethal force led to the end of the hostage standoff and Captain Phillips is coming home safely– an American hero. In the end the president did the right thing. (I still think that he may have been late in issuing the order but when all was said and done he did issue the order.)
From what I have heard Navy Seals were dropped into the area far enough away to avoid detection by the pirates terrorists (I am not going to call them pirates any more, these men are (were) terrorists) and were able to be transported to the US destroyer overnight.
As the situation deteriorated and it appeared that the captain’s life was in danger the order from the White House came down that lethal force was approved.
As the opportunity arose, one terrorist was a clear, open target while the other two were partial targets but at 30 meters it might as well have been 3 feet for our snipers. Three shots were fired simultaneouslyand three terrorists died on the spot with bullets to the head. Captain Phillips is coming home. I can’t tell you how much I admire every man and woman that puts on the uniform of the United States, not a day goes by that I don’t think about what they sacrifice for us and our freedom.
This is how I hoped that the situation would end and I KNEW that this is how the situation would end if we allowed our military to do their job. But what I wasn’t sure of was whether the president would allow them to do their job, but today he did and I am thankful.
This is what happens when you screw with the United States of America and every once in a while the enemy needs a reminder. Today they got that reminder and I think that the next time a band of pirates thinks about boarding an American vessel they will have second thoughts.
The question that I keep hearing about on the news is, what can we do to stop this from happening again? Well today America did what she had to do to stop this from happening again, at least to us. The rest of the world could learn a lesson from the United States today on how to make sure it doesn’t happen again to them.
The world is now going to look to the United States to help them end the scourge of piracy after just last week they were condemning us at the G20. They can condemn the United States all that they want but when push comes to shove it is ALWAYS the United States that bails them out when they need it and can’t do it themselves.
Last week the president spend all of his time apologizing for the United States and kissing ass all across Europe and the Middle East. If Europe wants our help to stop piracy on the high seas than it is time for Europe to start kissing our ass.
Pucker up.
America's Watchtower 
I hope he does not stop here in respects to the pirates. I hope that he will take the fight to them instead of continuing on as if nothing happened or playing “whack a mole” with catching them in the act both of which will inevitably lead to this saga happening again. However, I think he needs to hold the EU’s feet to the fire on this because a) they did not do anything to stop it and b) they stole Somalia’s fish and dumped toxic waste in their waters. This is EU’s mess and I will not be happy if we have to clean it up.
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The EU and the UN both did what they do best–nothing. They sit around and talk about the problem. I think the US may become more involved now.
Once again the US will have to clean up another mess around the world, that is why I find it so ironic that just last week Obama was going around Europe apologizing for the US, Europe always tyrns to us when they are in trouble.
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It was a REAL GOOD day to be an American!!! Even the fefties seemed to be happy, most of them anyway.
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The left was very worried about Obama’s image on an issue like this, they know that he had appeared weak. This helps his image in that regard.
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from what I understand, the order did not have to come from the President to use force. It was standard operating procedure and the authority to make that decision was the man who was running the operation. As soon as he felt the Captains life was in danger, he gave the order. It was under his authority which he already had. I don’t remember the guys name, but his picture was shown along with the rescued Captain on the news. He is the one that should be commended, not the President who sat by and didn’t even have the decency to make a statement saying anything regarding the hostage situation. He didn’t have to say what would be done, but he SHOULD have given a statement something to the effect of “our prayers are with him and we will do everything possible to gain his release”. Instead he said nothing and when asked at a press conference he ducked the question saying “we are talking about housing right now, next question”..
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Ah, haven’t heard anything from the great one yet… what is he waiting for? Even though Obama is not the hero, and he should not be stealing the spotlight, at least he could issue a brief statement. Too busy rolling eggs around?
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Mr Pink Eyes,
your retraction/apology to obama might be precocious. Good word from the teams is that the president issued the following guidance:
– SEALs were NOT to be in the water during the standoff
– The Commander in Charge was ordered NOT to use force unless
the captains life was in imminent danger
Unless we get help from congress to release this information (if obama really wants transparency) the general public will likely think this to just be “right wing extremists”. Should this be proven factual, obama should be held accountable to explain his orders. The captain jumped from the life boat, trusting his life to America. America, courtesy of obama, aondoned captain phillips. The SEALs home is the water and preventing them from being there to rescue Captain phillips when he trusted America enough to risk his life is disgusting. It was the captain that gave the orders to terminate the pirates when he could reasonably assume Captain Phillips life was in imminent danger.
Why could the US not kill the pirates earlier? The answer is clear.
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The more details that come in make me wonder if I issued my retraction too soon. It now appears as if the captain was rescued in spite of Obama.
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