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While an 800 million dollar US Naval ship floats helplessly, held at bay by 4 armed men in a little row boat, the French boarded a sailboat and freed the French hostages. One hostage was killed and so was one terrorist. The other three terrorists were captured.
The US on the other hand are doing NOTHING! Stupid. Get some commandos, snipers, surround the little row boat, and if they threaten to kill the captain, shoot the bastards between the eyes. Then go after all the other pirates with a shoot first, ask questions later. Be proactive. Don't simply react to the attacks. Find the pirates, blow the hell out of them. Apologize later. Use the big guns on the big ship, blow their little ships to nothing. No bodies, no debris. Just a big splash and some red. After a while, the pirates will realize that it's not in their best interest to mess with the US.
Artful Dodger: Bush would NEVER have tolerated this crap! So you're saying the pirates were waiting for Obama to get elected. There had been no piracy off the Somali coast before .
Vikings: How about USS Cape St. George, USS Gonzalez, MV Seabourn Spirit (not a US-registered vessel, but owned by an American corporation) or MS Nautica (again, not registered in the US, but owned by a US-based corporation)?
Pedro Martínez: It will be a good litmus test for the new liberal appeasement/talk with our enemies, get to know and understand them better, have sympathy for them, and they will play nice too, mentality.....
If these pirates let this captain go un harmed with tears in their eyes, heads hanging in shame and sorrow, and a new outlook for peaceful prosperity, then we will know that we finally have the solution to all of our problems!
Pedro Martínez: Well, to my knowledge this is the first time a US hostage has been taken. But you're right that these pirates have been at this sort of crap a long time.
Artful Dodger: Yes, they have. And I actually think the international forces (including the US) have been doing a good job fighting against them. There were victims, there were ransoms paid, but the number of successful pirate acts has a decreasing tendency. I especially welcomed the recent incident involving FGS Spessart.
Pedro Martínez:But don't you think they could do more? Like have a commando group on a few ships and set the pirates up? With a take no prisoners approach. A dead pirate can't reoffend.
Artful Dodger: There is a comando group of sorts. It's called Combined Task Force 150. However, the take-no-prisoners approach is not feasible. International law, you know... :) But now when we have a US hostage, I can imagine a change in this respect - as the US has proven not to worry much about the international law in the past few years.
Pedro Martínez:Well, if they surrendered, I'd have no choice but to take them prisoner. But while they are still armed and aggressive, I'd take a shoot to kill approach. If they survive, then they are captured. But my goal would be to make them dead first, captured second.
(V):Oh yeah. That was with that wimpy ineffective moron Jimmy Carter. He was one of the worst presidents in US history. Iran knew that Reagan wouldn't put up with anymore of their nonsense and they released them. You have to take a hard stand against terrorists. No soft approach will do. No "understanding their motives." Take it to them. And use lots of ammo and head aims. Dead terrorists can't whine about international law or rights or whatever.
Artful Dodger: Unfortunately in matter like this, such action has a high friendly death toll probability. If you wanted to really stop the pirates, you'd have to show that having a hostage is not a shield.
.... As for Reagan..... Sure he was tough. He traded weapons for people... A great stance against terrorists.