The Game in the Indian Ocean is Far From Over
If Obama thinks that he can just forget about the Somali pirates now and go back to sleep, he has another think coming:
Elizabeth A. Kennedy, in "Somali pirates on hijack spree since weekend," AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_re_af/piracy)
Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday, defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S. sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain.
Note the emotional pitch of the article. In fact, pirates commit piracy -- it's their profession. The pirates of course also want it to be seen like this, but there's no logical reason to assume that any less ships would have been taken had we not rescued that merchant crew -- and one thing we know for sure is that there are now four less men to make up the Somali crew strengths.
"No one can deter us," one bandit boasted.
Death certainly can make it impossible for them to continue. And, realistically, what he means is that what he thinks that the US is likely to do won't deter them. Whether or not he's right about this, or about what we are in fact likely to do, is still to be seen.
"Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land," Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone.
Note the lie in this sentence. The pirates are not, of coure, "protecting their waters from the enemy." What they are doing is attacking and seizing innocent merchant vessels out of greed.
"Our guns do not fire water. ...
No, they fire low-caliber ammunition. Inaccurately. The US Navy's guns fire 5" shells with laser-designation homing features, and the US Navy also has missiles. Who do you think will win that duel?
... I am sure we will avenge."
Let them try to. By increasing their sortie rate, they will render themselves vulnerable to identification and sinking by our navies. Also, by committing more acts of violence, they will reduce the political resistance to cleaning out their ports and homes the way they need to be, with napalm.
Only Obama's incompetence can possibly defeat us in the coming fight.
The pirates say they are fighting illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters but have come to operate hundreds of miles from there in a sprawling 1.1 million square-mile danger zone.
"... but have come ..."
Oh, I love that. They were just patrolling their own territorial waters, you see (close your eyes and resolutely ignore, Left, that they aren't a navy) and just happened to wander out hundreds of miles and capture and ransom uninvolved merchant vessels and their crews. Yeah, right. Because everyone knows that those Somalis don't act intentionally, like real people?
Anyone who believes this tripe has a lower opinion of the Somalis than I would have of anyone biologically human.
A flotilla of warships from nearly a dozen countries has patrolled the Gulf of Aden and nearby Indian Ocean waters for months. They have halted many attacks but say the area is so vast they can't stop all hijackings.
That's true. One has to move from a "stop all hijackings" model to a "sink the pirates and destroy their bases" model in order to actually win the war. This is the conceptual leap that I most fear Obama, with his lack of grasp of military or naval strategy, will be unable to make.
In an unusual nighttime raid, pirates seized the Greek-managed bulk carrier MV Irene E.M. before dawn Tuesday. Hours later, they commandeered the Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse.
On Sunday or Monday, they took two Egyptian fishing trawlers. Maritime officials said the Irene carried 21 to 23 Filipino crew and the fishing boats 36 fishermen, all believed to be Egyptian. A carrier the size of the Sea Horse would need at least a dozen crew, although the exact number was not immediately available.
Note the common factor here -- none of these were American-flagged or, as far as I can tell, even American-manned vessels. So, if we are to regard this as some sort of "retaliation," the pirates failed to "retaliate" against the right targets.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said.
The Egyptian boats were taken in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast. Said Mursi, Egypt's ambassador to Somalia who is based in Kenya, said the trawlers probably did not have licenses to fish Somali waters. "From my experience, I think that they were illegally fishing," he told The Associated Press.
Note that the only actual illegal fishing trawlers involved came from fellow Third World countries. Fellow Muslim Third World countries, at that.
I bet the Left is going to ignore this fact, and that the Yemenis also captured a couple of pirates.
Elizabeth A. Kennedy, in "Somali pirates on hijack spree since weekend," AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_re_af/piracy)
Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday, defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S. sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain.
Note the emotional pitch of the article. In fact, pirates commit piracy -- it's their profession. The pirates of course also want it to be seen like this, but there's no logical reason to assume that any less ships would have been taken had we not rescued that merchant crew -- and one thing we know for sure is that there are now four less men to make up the Somali crew strengths.
"No one can deter us," one bandit boasted.
Death certainly can make it impossible for them to continue. And, realistically, what he means is that what he thinks that the US is likely to do won't deter them. Whether or not he's right about this, or about what we are in fact likely to do, is still to be seen.
"Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land," Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone.
Note the lie in this sentence. The pirates are not, of coure, "protecting their waters from the enemy." What they are doing is attacking and seizing innocent merchant vessels out of greed.
"Our guns do not fire water. ...
No, they fire low-caliber ammunition. Inaccurately. The US Navy's guns fire 5" shells with laser-designation homing features, and the US Navy also has missiles. Who do you think will win that duel?
... I am sure we will avenge."
Let them try to. By increasing their sortie rate, they will render themselves vulnerable to identification and sinking by our navies. Also, by committing more acts of violence, they will reduce the political resistance to cleaning out their ports and homes the way they need to be, with napalm.
Only Obama's incompetence can possibly defeat us in the coming fight.
The pirates say they are fighting illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters but have come to operate hundreds of miles from there in a sprawling 1.1 million square-mile danger zone.
"... but have come ..."
Oh, I love that. They were just patrolling their own territorial waters, you see (close your eyes and resolutely ignore, Left, that they aren't a navy) and just happened to wander out hundreds of miles and capture and ransom uninvolved merchant vessels and their crews. Yeah, right. Because everyone knows that those Somalis don't act intentionally, like real people?
Anyone who believes this tripe has a lower opinion of the Somalis than I would have of anyone biologically human.
A flotilla of warships from nearly a dozen countries has patrolled the Gulf of Aden and nearby Indian Ocean waters for months. They have halted many attacks but say the area is so vast they can't stop all hijackings.
That's true. One has to move from a "stop all hijackings" model to a "sink the pirates and destroy their bases" model in order to actually win the war. This is the conceptual leap that I most fear Obama, with his lack of grasp of military or naval strategy, will be unable to make.
In an unusual nighttime raid, pirates seized the Greek-managed bulk carrier MV Irene E.M. before dawn Tuesday. Hours later, they commandeered the Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse.
On Sunday or Monday, they took two Egyptian fishing trawlers. Maritime officials said the Irene carried 21 to 23 Filipino crew and the fishing boats 36 fishermen, all believed to be Egyptian. A carrier the size of the Sea Horse would need at least a dozen crew, although the exact number was not immediately available.
Note the common factor here -- none of these were American-flagged or, as far as I can tell, even American-manned vessels. So, if we are to regard this as some sort of "retaliation," the pirates failed to "retaliate" against the right targets.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said.
The Egyptian boats were taken in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast. Said Mursi, Egypt's ambassador to Somalia who is based in Kenya, said the trawlers probably did not have licenses to fish Somali waters. "From my experience, I think that they were illegally fishing," he told The Associated Press.
Note that the only actual illegal fishing trawlers involved came from fellow Third World countries. Fellow Muslim Third World countries, at that.
I bet the Left is going to ignore this fact, and that the Yemenis also captured a couple of pirates.