The Coalition of the Swilling

And WHY THE HELL did the destroyer not swoop in and get him?

GodDAMN these people who want to 'negotiate' and 'hold hearings' about this.

Seriously, as soon as they knew he was off the lifeboat, they should have blasted the thing into a million pieces.

I agree with both of the commenters. I liked it better when we didn't negotiate with terrorists. Because that's what these pirates ARE. Maybe on a smaller scale than Hamas, and for more selfish reasons, but they're still terrorists.

I hope there's a VERY good explanation for "Hey! The guy's in the water ~ blow the shit outta them, QUICK!" NOT. It had BETTER not be, "Quick, call hdqtrs and ask them if it's okay..."

Someone in the comments over on FOX mentioned Blackhawk Down.

It all happened too quickly? How much time is needed to pull the trigger on the ma deuce? Why doesn't the Bainbridge have a fifty call aimed in on that life boat at all times? Geez louise.

And the other line in that article that got my blood boiling was the one where the hijackers are afraid they'll be arrested or shot if they hand over the American. Why isn't that their primary fear before they attempt to steal an American flagged ship? This should not be a fear, it should be a guaranteed expectation.

They should hang these vermin from the yardarms.

I agree with you 100% Skyler.

The leash our sailors are being kept on, no doubt, is being held by Obama. O is terrified of the thought of the hostage being killed and, given his weak, flaccid foreign policy thus far won't risk any bloodshed no matter how much the pirates deserve it.

If O gives up the two million ransom to these roaches he should face impeachment.

"Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute." Those words were spoken more than 200 years ago the first time America took on pirates. I hesitate to imagine the consequences if they're no longer true.

Manual Trackback

Apparently we have, over the course of history, forgotten the two most important words one can utter when dealing with pirates:

No quarter.

To be fair, after Jefferson said millions for defense, not one cent for tribute, he immediately went and paid the ransom for, irony of ironies, Capt Bainbridge and his crew to be freed. (Some say Jefferson never said this, but it was in vogue at the time nonetheless).

Yeah, the same Bainbridge that the navy ship on scene is named after.

I always wondered why they keep naming ships after him. The fact is that he was a captive of the Barbary pirates because he ran his ship aground on a shoal off the coast of Tripoli. Instead of waiting for the tide to come in, and against the pleas and protests of his much more sensible crew, Bainbridge hailed down the nearest Tripolitan ship he could see to surrender to. It took them a long time to realize that he was surrendering because they weren't attacking him and they knew that when the tide came in the ship would float away fine. Which it did, after he threatened them enough to convince them to take him and his crew prisoner.

Not all our history is as noble as it is sometimes portrayed.

Doesn't the military have guys trained in scuba who could go under a lifeboat and, like, knock it over, or fire harpoons up their asses, or SOMEthing? I mean, I know nada about warfare but isn't there SOME course of action that can be taken rather than "sit here waiting for more pirate-terrorists to arrive"?

Or they could just hoist the damn boat up on board the ship.

There's always risks, but you'd think some tear gas would be real helpful at the same time frogmen start poking holes in the boat and others climb aboard while others are shooting. There's a good chance our heroic captain will be hurt no matter what they do or don't do. They might as well try something.

I'm with Julie. You don't have to be James Bond to get to the lifeboat underwater, lob in a stun grenade or something instantly disarming and get him out. wtf.

Well skyler, history just might repeat itself.

Well Skyler, history is about to repeat itself.

oops

An update:

Good news.