Somali Pirates Seize 21 American Sailors

reply to post by The Godfather of Conspira

..Imagine what's going to happen to our "great" reputation?

The entire world is giving the US sh*t for dragging them down the toilet with them in the worst financial crisis in recent history.

Do you want to go and brawl with every one who so much as looks at the US cross-eyed?

If we are going to have a bad rep they might as well be afraid to pull stunts like this.
It's recess time folks, and the scrawny kid just threw a rock at the new kid in school. The other kids are now looking for rocks themselves.
Doesn't get any simpler than this.

Precisely the attitude that preceded Afghanistan and Iraq. Now you want to get stuck knee-deep in Somalian quicksand.
Did you learn nothing from 1993? Obviously NOT.
Somali will bleed the US out just like Iraq is doing.

The only thing we learned is, if nothing is done early on and you don't nip it in the bud, they will continue to test the US with onezee twozees acts of violence until eventually we end up with another major attack.
To avoid a future "quagmire", as you say, you need to do something now, otherwise, things are sure to escalate.

And 50% of the population aren't fat, they're just "well-rounded".

Actually I think the number is a little higher.

The US military is stuck. Physically and mentally. None of the top brass want to budge a foot out of Iraq, but all of them want to get out of that godforsaken region.
That's a quagmire.

Better to wait a bit more now to avoid having to return later.
Besides, Obowma will send them soon to Afghanistan.

How convienient of Bush too leaving this issue to the last minute, not touching it and pawning it off onto Obama.
Another wonderful legacy!

Being Prez is both a blessing and a curse. Not only do you get to blame the previous guy when things go bad but you also take the credit when things go well, just as Obama will soon accept credit for victory in Iraq.

Stop seeing this as a Democrat-Republican issue from your narrow-minded viewpoint.

It's a Republicrat issue. Neither side wants to touch this. They could care less about international shipping.

Demo-Rep, Republicrat has nothing to do with it.
It's more a matter of whether we do the brave thing now by taking action and hold them accountable or cower down and hide and hope they'll go away.
Guess what? They won't go away, if anything, there will be other countries that will soon take shots at the US, byt the time we finally react, 2012 perhaps, it will be too late.

It'd take 20 American ships capsizing in the Gulf of Aden before they got off their fat asses...

Obviously you don't understand what it means to be in two unwinnable conflicts at the same and then have people give you suggestions for a third.

Bit like having both your arms amputated and someone asking you "for a hand".

Then we better do something now before Obama decides to shrink our military, and we all know he is already planning doing so.

Even Biden, the walking gaffe machine, has already said Obama will be tested within 6 months of taking office.
Maybe he meant 3.

USS Halyburton arrived with the Bainbridge today. USS Boxer (LHD-4) arrives in the next 24 hours or so.

The Boxer is a Wasp Class assault ship. She's capable of carrying up to 20 AV-8B Harriers. Her standard aircraft complement is 6-8 Harriers, 4 AH-1W Super Cobras, 12 CH-46 Sea Knights, 3 CH-53 Sea Stallions, and 3 UH-1 Hueys.

For the Assault configuration, they carry 42 CH-46s. For Sea Control they carry the 20 AV-8Bs, and 6 SH-60s.

She also has a well deck that can launch landing craft. She's capable of carrying up to 3 LCACs, or LCUs.

reply to post by greenorbs


First of all I just want to say that you posted a good take on things . However in reality certain practicality's would get in the way of destroying the Pirate havens . What immediately springs to mind is the fact that the small craft used by the pirates can be easily hidden and the fact the pirates can blend in easily with local populations .

Why waste such a valuable tool as special forces on the pirates when they could be used in Afghanistan or against real game in Africa Al-Qaeda leaders and infrastructure ?

reply to post by xpert11


I agree that the resources in the big picture should be used elsewhere. To solve this particular problem though would require focus. With the Darfur mess, and the crazy piracy/quasi-terrorism moves, Africa is looking more and more like the next stop for troops pulling out of Iraq.

No need to send troops..after taking Satelite photos..carpet bomb the Somolia coast..wait a week, repeat the process...wait another week repeat the process...anymore ships hijacked..repeat the process..

reply to post by booky


I like that idea, maybe not carpet bombing though. If there is some bustling pirate port where pirate groupies gather to marry dead men, then we can surely pick our targets a little more clearly, other than that the idea is good. This battle should be fought from the air, make a dinghy full of idiots with AK's and RPG's the LAST place anybody wants to be in those waters....

reply to post by 27jd


Small teams of Special Operation Forces inserted into these "hubs" to provide intelligence, targeting, and ground assault capability could go far way to disrupt piracy in this region. They would realize that we can indeed reach out and touch them on land as well. AC-130's would have a field day with these folks. We have done this rather recently in Somalia; nothing would change, just the target.

(CBS/AP) Attack helicopters strafed suspected al Qaeda fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said, following two days of air strikes by U.S. forces — the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.

In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al Qaeda. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.

Link

That was under Bush though, I don't know if Obama will approve of the same.

[edit on 17-4-2009 by WestPoint23]

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Small teams of Special Operation Forces inserted into these "hubs" to provide intelligence, targeting, and ground assault capability could go far way to disrupt piracy in this region. They would realize that we can indeed reach out and touch them on land as well. AC-130's would have a field day with these folks.

Yeah, that would work except i'd be afraid of taking the chance of our guys getting caught up in a mogadishu repeat...as long as they were small enough a force to stay hidden i'm sure they'd do fine. I was thinking parking carrier in the area, don't they have the ability to project power fairly quickly anywhere in that square mileage? The pirate boats are pretty obvious, as soon as one is spotted on the water send a hornet, all it would take is one missile, that kind of no tolerance policy would take away some of the incentive i would imagine...

[edit on 17-4-2009 by 27jd]