Current Events 4/13/09:

"A miracle of Obama, The Somali Pirate Situation ends"         - A Fortscribe orginal - Edited on 4/14

Praise to Obama, the pirate situation on the Maersk Alabama  has ended!  Obama acts decisively and proves he is not Carter!  Obama 1 - Pirate 0!  Haha... Yeah right.  If this were another situation I would simply be glad that the captain and the crew are safe.  The media however, seems to be more excited about creating propaganda for Obama.  Since they are willing to use this topic for political gain, we are willing to shut them down.

This story proves something alright, it proves that the people closest to a situation are the ones who most effectively act.  Men of action, not buzzwords are the ones to actually solve problems.   While Washington was sitting on its hands trying to access potential options, the heroic crew of this vessel fought back, took a pirate captive and negotiated the reacquisition of their vessel.   The captain of this ship was a hero, he offered himself in exchange for the lives of his crew.   Since they are cowards, the pirate thugs took him as a hostage.

Because of their heroism, the American crew ultimately de-escalated the situation and created an opportunity for trained sharpshooters to eliminate the handful of pirates guarding the captain.  Rather than attempting to rescue many potential victims, the naval operations team was able to focus on just rescuing one potential victim.   Any commander can see the advantage of having to deal with less variables.

So Obama ordered the sharpshooters to fire?  I kind of wonder about that.  I think the situation was a little different.   I bet the forces at the scene realized that using sharpshooters was probably the wisest of several courses of action.  They relayed to Obama's cabinet the potential options available.  From what I can gather, it appears that Obama wanted to only authorize force only if the captive was in "immediate danger."  Of course, terms of engagement like that are pretty subjective. What constitutes immediate danger?  If things didn't work out, Obama could have blamed it on the acting commander.  " He misinterpreted my divine orders by acting rashly." 

Thankfully, Commander Frank Castellano assessed the situation wisely.  He concluded that a pirate with a gun aimed at somebody constitutes immediate danger.  I suspect he took that as authorization to use force when the opportunity presented itself.  While the five days of fruitless negotiation didn't result in a peaceful situation, that time probably bought the naval task force a chance to examine weaknesses in the pirate defense.  They saw a good opportunity to make use of sharpshooters and capitalized on it. 

Of course, Obama authorized the commander to use force. What does that prove?  Obama was not a complete incompetent?  He actually listened to military experts?  He didn't pull a Johnson by picking out exact targets?  He was not as unlucky like Carter?  Wow.  Good job Obama!  You really rose to the moment.  You are a hero.  You put yourself on the line.  Now we should all rally behind your piss-poor economic polices.

Haha. 

Speaking of economic policies, why was that ship threatened by Somali pirates?  Was it the result of Bush creating socioeconomic turn-moil in the rest of the world?  Hard to prove that since our second president Jefferson also had to contend with African pirates. 

Disgraceful.

The first pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the Second Barbary War in 1815.  This did not happen under the Bush administration, it happened under your watch. 

What could be so important that an American crew poorly outfit for combat would risk these troubled waters?  Oh wait, I know!  They were carrying food relief supplies to Kenya!  We all know that relief supplies alleviate the socioeconomic stresses that lead to violence.  Why didn't years of aid to Africa prevent the pirate threat?  Why didn't the new found good will in our Chosen messiah protect our men overseas?  

Obama, you have signed a bill to spend almost a trillion dollars.  In your campaign you promised to send more money to Africa.

Obama: "I know development assistance is not the most popular program, but as President, I will make the case to the American people that it can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world. That was true with the Marshall Plan, and that must be true today. That’s why I’ll double our foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012, and use it to support a stable future in failing states, and sustainable growth in Africa; to halve global poverty and to roll back disease. To send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now.”

You have campaigned to send more aid money to Africa.  You get away with bullshit statements about halving global poverty. (Did our previous 25 billion reduce global poverty by 25%?)  Somehow though, you seem focused on cutting funds for our armed forces.  Armed forces that bailed us out of this near-tragedy.

Why did the crew have to go so poorly equipped?  We can appreciate the need for ports to reject ships carrying weapons cargo.  If an effort were made though, I am sure certain African ports would agree to harbor ships with registered defensive munitions.  Just enough to fend off a small scale illegal boarding.  Seems like the pirates get their weapons in spite of docking regulations.  Why should our crews endanger themselves by following retarded gun control standards? 

We could go on, but the pirates are going to hijack more of our ships.  Obama will act like a big man as he orders our military to hunt down the 16 year olds thugs.  Some great test crisis for our new president.  Thankfully, expanded aid to Africa will be intercepted by land pirates.