LoneShark is right: "^ Why is this not a thread? Pirates not good enough for TWW?"

so much awesomeness to go around

Quote :

"It was something Hollywood could have scripted: three sharpshooters on the fantail of a destroyer, wearing night vision goggles as dusk settled over the sea, each drew a bead on one of the three teenage pirates standing 100 feet away in a pitching lifeboat aiming weapons at a bound Phillips. The snipers shot as one, and all three pirates fell dead simultaneously. Phillips was unscathed."

Quote :

""I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of (piracy) in that region," the commander-in-chief said. "To achieve that goal we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes," he said."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/04/13/2009-04-13_president_obama_declares_war_on_the_scourge_of_the_seas_somali_pirates.html


video
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/13/somalia.rescue.breakdown/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

[Edited on April 13, 2009 at 5:55 PM. Reason : link]

4/13/2009 5:44:12 PM

so fucking sweet


props to Obama for letting these dudes do their jobs... awesomely

4/13/2009 5:50:01 PM

GO NAVY!

BEAT ARMY KILL PIRATES!

seriously badass.

[Edited on April 13, 2009 at 6:08 PM. Reason : if no one is going to post in here im just going to post SEAL and Navy pictures]

4/13/2009 5:59:27 PM

i can't believe these dumbasses are vowing revenge and stuff. I mean, let's review the facts:

Out of your 4 buddies, 3 of them got shot in the face, and the other is going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison for a looooooong time (where, at 85 lbs, I'm sure he'll fare awesomely)...and you want to pick MORE fights with the people who did those things to them?

Whatever. They don't cause any more problems once you shoot them in the face.

4/13/2009 6:08:28 PM

BZ

4/13/2009 6:10:46 PM

^^ yeah, they're statement was ridiculous - trying to play the victim.
"we're just hard working pirates. all we want is money, we don't hurt anybody! Just let us continue taking over your ships and we won't bother anyone if you give us your money!"

4/13/2009 6:15:42 PM

their

my post from the other thread:

GG US Forces.

Take that, you hell-dwelling pirates.

Quote :

"The military actions angered Ali Nur, a pirate who is based in Gara'ad, a coastal village in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, in northern Somalia."

More like Pwntland... bwahahahahahah!!!!!111

4/13/2009 6:17:26 PM

4/13/2009 6:23:17 PM

Now don't get me wrong, I agree 100% with what the Navy did in freeing Captain Phillips. However, we should prepare ourselves for the fact that the violence is going to start escalating off the Horn of Africa. Given the growing brazen activity by the pirates and the increasing international mobilization to combat the problem, it was inevitable that things would start getting bloody sooner or later. Even without the American intervention, the French assault on their yacht earlier would probably have upped the ante.

I think the Somalis are underestimating American resolve in dealing with this problem. Their only memory of the United States is our rather ugly debacle about fifteen years ago in their country, but they forget that one of the very first American victories was over African pirates centuries ago (as immortalized by the Marine's Hymn). This isn't a morally murky conflict like Somalia 1993, Iraq, or Afghanistan but is a pretty clean-cut case of piracy/banditry. The question isn't whether or not the US will respond, but whether we'll simply escort ships or start launching raids with SEALS and marines against pirate strongholds.

I think the United States should be ready as well given that future engagements may not be as clean as the Maersk Alabama. You're not going to solve the problem at sea alone; if you really want to break the pirates, its going to take some serious boots on the ground.

4/13/2009 6:29:44 PM

boots on the ground or a healthy dose of:



but, you're right, this isn't a morally murky issue here. you attack, commandeer our ships and/or hold our citizens hostage, you get to deal with the consequences.

4/13/2009 6:35:34 PM

I really doubt we will see land based raids into pirate strongholds. No real point, you don't want to capture pirates, and there isn't any real intel to gain from a land op. As soon as real force is shown I can't see this escalating any more than it already has. Mainly because the pirates don't have much to escalate with.

4/13/2009 6:39:14 PM

it is really only morally unambiguous when we are defending american lives/ships. the biggest thing now is that we MUST respond whenever pirates seize an american ship. we cannot let our response become less than full engagement whenever an american vessel is taken; the expectation from the pirates point of view is that if they take an american ship there are two end game options: death or long-term imprisonment. the biggest reason the threat has grown to the size it has is that there have been little consequences for piracy.

4/13/2009 6:50:49 PM

When our forces make it too risky for the pirates to capture ships, they will stop, and it would not be hard for the US Navy to do that. They have been getting away with it for a while, but hopefully not any longer.

4/13/2009 6:58:51 PM

gg Obama

gg SEALS

I have to admit, I am really puzzled by some of your responses based on your past arguments of the treatments of terrorists. would you be ok if we just shot all insurgents/Taliban/ al Queda in the face instead of taking them prisoner?

4/13/2009 6:58:58 PM

^ while they have one of ours captive?

i prefer shot dem in dey face

4/13/2009 7:05:17 PM

me too, and I dont really care if they have a captive. aggressive action should be responded to with aggressive action.

4/13/2009 7:10:13 PM

[Edited on April 13, 2009 at 7:13 PM. Reason : .]

4/13/2009 7:13:22 PM

we aren't somali invaders, so there is no local backlash to worry about.

[Edited on April 13, 2009 at 7:29 PM. Reason : trying to use cookie cutter policies for every place would be idiotic]

4/13/2009 7:28:43 PM

The fact that these dudes parachuted into the water near the Bainbridge and then split three dudes' melons with simultaneous shots in rough seas from a pitching/rolling/yawing deck is.... damn impressive.

4/13/2009 8:06:27 PM

hell yes it is. how do you even account for the pitching of 2 ships?

4/13/2009 8:17:57 PM

i think they were only like 100' away

i don't mean to diminish their work--they did a helluva job--but from what i understand, they were all but point-blank range.

4/13/2009 8:51:15 PM

the news originally said it was a fire fight that lasted a couple minutes, now they are saying that it was something out of a movie

im not sure which i believe

4/13/2009 9:32:26 PM

first thing i thought when i heard the seals saved them was "how did they sniper someone when they are on the ocean which is constantly moving"

4/13/2009 9:59:44 PM

personally i don't believe that in a firefight, the captain is still alive

4/13/2009 10:27:59 PM

Quote :

"would you be ok if we just shot all insurgents/Taliban/ al Queda in the face instead of taking them prisoner?"

It's one thing to pick up a random guy on the street on the word of Ahmed the Barber.
It's entirely another to see the guy with a rifle pointed at the back of a hostage. Kind of takes the "is he innocent" factor out of it completely.

And let me come out and say:

Quote :

"GG, Obama"

4/13/2009 10:37:38 PM

It gets sweeter:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090413/ap_en_tv/tv_spike_pirate_hunters

Quote :

"Spike seals deal for show on Navy pirate hunters NEW YORK – Barely a day after the daring rescue of an American sea captain, cable TV's Spike announced a deal Monday to produce a show about U.S. Navy pirate hunters. Two crews for 44 Blue Productions hope to be on board Navy vessels patrolling in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Africa within two weeks. The company is aiming to have a series ready to put on the air by September, said Rasha Drachkovitch, 44 Blue's president and founder."

4/13/2009 11:22:10 PM

the potential for TV drama moneymaking is probably greater than what the pirates could get in loot anyway.

4/14/2009 1:01:10 AM

the pirates collected 150 million last year

4/14/2009 1:13:06 AM

yeah i didnt agree with ^^ either

[Edited on April 14, 2009 at 1:18 AM. Reason : although he did say "probably"]

4/14/2009 1:17:57 AM

Props to the Navy Commander who pulled this off. Must've been quite a shock to Phillips to be sitting in that life-boat, and all of a sudden the three guys around him get their heads blown off.

Our Silver-tongued President had this to say:

"I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy in that region.."

If a conservative said this, it would be played for laughs on Jon Stewart for a week. As such, the AP changed the quote to what he meant...and yet another Obama speaking gaffe will be ignored.

4/14/2009 1:27:52 AM

hell, I bet you there are users on tww that would love to be a pirate and make 350k a year....however, being a shithole like Somalia...not much to spend it on.....I predict within 1 month either a American ship or a French ship will be taken and all the crew executed.

4/14/2009 1:38:51 AM

^
Perhaps...but Obama will go after you only after you make over $250K in pirate booty. ( <---cheap shot )

4/14/2009 1:50:54 AM

I seem to recall saying something similar in another thread, but here's a rehash:

I've never encountered any word, video, audio, or personal encounter involving anyone who's ever been near Somalia that says there's any hope for it at all. We tried delivering food. It got stolen. We tried to capture the people stealing it. We got shot. They've dug their own shitty grave, let them lie in it.

Part of me wants to say, "Just bomb the shit out of any part of Somalia that looks at us crosswise," but I won't. They're people, even if they are people who insist on acting like they're goddamned retards. But I'm concerned that if we limit our actions to handling piracy, sooner or later Somalia will be the next Sudan or Afghanistan, just another failed state with a sympathetic populations that nurtures a massive network of terrorists. And sooner or later some of those terrorists fuck with us, and then we have to go into the Horn of Africa. And that worked out so well for us last time, when we were bringing bread and candy instead of bullets and tanks.

I worry that if I have kids they're going to end up having to deal with old problems in Somalia, just like a lot of my parents' generation is worried about their kids dealing with old problems in Afghanistan.

----

After all that ranting, way to go SEALS and Barack for authorizing it.

[Edited on April 14, 2009 at 2:05 AM. Reason : ]

4/14/2009 2:02:03 AM

The motheruckers hijack THREE more ships after the rescue.

1 Greek cargo ship
2 Egyptian fishing vessels

This (i.e., blatant highway robbery highseas piracy) is one type of assholery where I would be totally for SHOCK AND AWE tactics to scare so much shit out of them that would develop an extreme phobia of water, any amount of water any where.

4/14/2009 7:04:52 AM

For the past 6 months i have been wondering why shipping companies dont put armed forces aboard thier boats, with piracy the way it is.

That would really change things if pirates didn't know which ships had a team of mercenaries on it and which ones didnt.

4/14/2009 10:15:35 AM

my first thoughts would be:
- cost of providing armed protection
- perhaps they think that if say the situation that happened this past week the captain had been armed, he'd have been shot on the spot. of course these particular pirates weren't in it for the cargo, they were looking for ransom. but when the pirates are confronted with an armed person, they'd likely escalate into violence.

also, iirc from one of my uncles who travelled with a guy on a boat for a couple months, lots of people aren't armed on board of ships because lots of countries don't allow weapons in their ports and their coast guards will search the ships if you're in their waters.

[Edited on April 14, 2009 at 10:22 AM. Reason : .]

4/14/2009 10:20:55 AM

^
Another example of how "Gun-Free Zones" attract criminals?

4/14/2009 11:07:34 AM

This event alone has set in stone the answer to the age-old debate in regards to Pirates versus Ninjas. I propose, that the Navy Seals are in fact simply Ninjas, that carry guns. They enter the scene undetected, kill anyone that gets in their way, and then steath out as quickly and as easily as they infiltrated. The only decernable difference is the gear that they carry, be it a sword or a gun, but the Seals mindset and philosophy is exactly the same as that of a Ninja. Please see the below examples for details:





Notice the badassery? See the stark determination on their faces? Not to mention several dead Pirates and zero Ninja Seal casualities? Yes, I do believe, the case is closed on this debate.

Discuss.

[Edited on April 14, 2009 at 11:14 AM. Reason : -]

4/14/2009 11:10:23 AM

^ Agreed. The strength of the pirate is revealed in numbers. His crew and shipmates. But, in a situation like this, the elite ninjas with their long distance shurikens had the upper hand. Bam, bam, bam! Three precisely placed shurikens sealed the deal.

4/14/2009 11:47:58 AM

^ I can support such a conclusion.

4/14/2009 11:48:03 AM

seconded

4/14/2009 12:42:06 PM

4/14/2009 1:25:16 PM

Apparently, during my squadron's last deployment to Iraq (before this last one--i.e., the last one before I arrived), they got a call to see if they could send a jet out on short notice to jam RADAR and comms on a pirate ship off the coast of somewhere in Africa. The mission got cancelled before they actually launched, though.

If they ask us to do that again, I think we oughta hit it with a HARM while we're at it...just for good measure (we could pitch it as gaining operational experience with the weapon).

4/14/2009 2:06:34 PM

^oh yeah, that would be cool...expecially since the "mother ships" are captured ships with hostages onboard...sounds like a great plan!!!!

4/14/2009 3:15:56 PM

pirates sure is a flattering term for terrorists

4/14/2009 4:07:12 PM

they are just not as romanticized as the pirates of lore.

4/14/2009 4:22:28 PM

^^ nah, they have no political or ideological agenda. They are no different than the common robber, except they happen to be nautical.

4/14/2009 4:52:25 PM

Pirates - looting and/or ransom on the high seas in order to get the bling

Terrorists - attacks in ordinary living or working areas to instill fear in order to advance an ideological goal

[Edited on April 14, 2009 at 5:41 PM. Reason : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU]

4/14/2009 5:37:59 PM

4th vessel hijacked since the rescue, a Lebanese cargo ship.

Can someone bomb their bases and villages already? (warn beforehand, to let the women and children escape)

4/14/2009 8:09:40 PM

Quote :

"let the women and children escape"

seems like a good idea on the surface...but lots of the pirates are basically children

4/14/2009 8:38:58 PM