Thursday, April 09, 2009

On Pirates and Pretenders

The Obama Administration is doing what it can to make us less safe in the world. Oh yes, I know Joe Biden doesn't think so, but he is the same guy who got caught plagiarizing someone else's work and asked a guy in a wheelchair to stand up so people could see him. His opinion is a little light on credibility, if you know what I'm saying...

Anyway, my reason for saying this is his administration's swift and decisive response to the seizing of a U.S. flagged cargo ship near Cape Horn by Somali pirates. These pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama, which was bound for Kenya. The crew fought back, and reclaimed the ship. Thankfully, there are still some Americans who are willing to take a stand against terrorists and push them back. The drawback is that the terrorists still have a hostage, the ship's captain, who is being held by the pirates in a lifeboat. The U.S. Navy dispatched a destroyer, USS Bainbridge, which has been in sight of the lifeboat for many hours now. The Obama administration has decided to use FBI negotiators to seek the safe return of the captain. From the AP:

A ragtag band of pirates has put President Barack Obama in a bind: He commands overwhelming firepower in the form of a growing flotilla of U.S. warships, but he doesn't want to use it.

Thursday's decision to turn to FBI hostage negotiators showed Obama reaching for all of his limited options in the high-seas hostage drama. Negotiators in the United States were communicating with the pirates through a Navy destroyer that shadowed the small lifeboat where four pirates held American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips.


I guess the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" policy is officially dead. But the more important question is why doesn't Obama act like a world leader and dispatch these terrorists, and their land-bound compatriots with extreme prejudice? There is nothing to be gained in such a silly standoff. Each passing minute that these vermin draw breath makes us look that much weaker in the eyes of other nations and assorted bad actors who smell our blood in the water and would like nothing better than to swim by and take a bite from us. Lord Zero's intense need to be liked and perceived as a chin-stroking intellectual has now officially put us in a place where I, and others who have had to deal with bullies at any time in our lives, can realize that we really are less safe tonight as a nation then we were last night. Good Job, Barry! When the alligators come, I want to feed them your family first.