Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Monday, April 13, 2009

CAPTAIN PHILIlPS RESCUED

Some rightwing malcontent came to my comment section in the post below to castigate President Obama on his handling of the pirate hostage situation in the Indian Ocean. The wingnut unbelievably brayed that Mr. Obama was doing nothing to deal with the crisis, and, therefore, was weak and ineffective. Not known for their ability to actually think and reason, these sorts of idiots shoot their mouths off first and then, when we learn what the reality is, deserve all the ridicule and contempt we can heap on them when the facts bear out their outrageous incompetence and stupidity. Here's what the pathetic troll posted:

"Obummer will be a disaster for America, on the other hand, he is the right color for the left (yellow) and doesn't his wife dress well!! In the space of two months, he's already become America's Gordon Brown. He is a complete incompetent.Proposing an amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal immigrants at this time of economic crisis? Declining to pay his respects to the American war dead in Normandy? Look what he's doing offshore Somalia. Nothing.I think it far more significant that the US isn't dealing with pirates"This is very strange isn't it?"


Actually, what is strange is that this commenter has the ability to use hand-eye coordination to even type, let alone turn on a computer. But even well-fed pigeons can learn to poke out letters on a keyboard, so I'm told.

Go here to read what the estimable TAO has posted regarding the sad state of the GOP over at his blog.


Here is the report on what actually happened and how Mr. Obama handled the crisis.


WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy is showing only glimmers of life and two costly wars remain in the balance, but President Barack Obama's "no drama" handling of the Indian Ocean hostage crisis proved a big win for his administration in its first critical national security test.
Obama's quiet backstage decision to authorize the Defense Department to take necessary action if Capt. Richard Phillips' life was in imminent danger gave a Navy commander the go-ahead to order snipers to fire on the pirates holding the
cargo ship captain at gunpoint.

For Obama, the benefits were instantly clear: an American life saved and a major victory notched against an increasingly worrisome scourge of the seas off the Horn of Africa.
Obama's handling of the crisis showed a president who was comfortable in relying on the U.S. military, much as his predecessor, George W. Bush, did.

But it also showed a new commander in chief who was willing to use all the tools at his disposal, bringing in federal law enforcement officials to handle the judicial elements of the crisis.

The rescue appeared to vindicate Obama's muted but determined handling of the incident. What won't be known for some time is whether Obama will benefit politically.

When Obama campaigns for re-election, he may take Bush's approach of turning any such incident into evidence of his leadership acumen.

On the other hand, Obama didn't go before the cameras Sunday to trumpet the success, instead releasing a written statement that saluted the bravery of the military and Phillips but claimed no credit for himself.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Instead of giving him credit, they are saying that Obama put the captain's life in danger by not giving the order on day one.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anonymous,

Who are "they?" And are "they" privileged with inside intelligence from the Navy or Pentagon?

The ubiquitious "they" of the internet know doodley-squat.

President Obama, according to the WH, was in contact with the Navy and the Pentagon--not "they."

Everyone is safe. And 3 pirates are gone.

Only the really mentally distrubed would crap on the success of this rescue.

Dave Miller said...

Let's see here.

Pirates take US flagged merchant ship miles away from any US Military presence.

When the US Navy arrives, the merchant captain engineers the safe release of his crew, and is quickly held as a hostage.

Meanwhile, the right wing of the US Political spectrum essentially calls President Obama a wuss for not doing something. This in spite of the fact that Former Pres. Bush did nothing throughout his admin when the same type of thing was happening on the high seas.

Yesterday, it was learned that President Obama had given the order that led to the captains rescue on Friday.

No bluster, no appearance in front of the cameras. No taunting of the pirates. No response from his admin on what he was doing.

Just quick, decisive action that proved to be the difference.

Leadership.

James' Muse said...

Anon:

He DID give the order on day one, durfwad.

He was staying silent on it to allow the military to be able to do what they do best.

rockync said...

In fact, the President was on it from "day one." How these things work is the President is in contact with his military leaders and they discuss tactics and the President then gives orders.
I suspect that they were told to gather around the boat and wait to see if a nonviolent solution could be initiated. When it became apparent that the captain was in emminent danger, they acted on their orders which must have included a provision for this situation.
Acting too quickly may have actually put the captain in more danger and probably would have gotten him killed.
In any event, like Shaw said, everyone on our side is safe and three violent criminals are dead.

I Want To Set It Straight said...

Look, all's well that ends well, but I don't think we should have waited 5 days.. we were lucky that they didn't kill the good Captain by then

Shaw Kenawe said...

I'm Here To Say It,

When you get elected POTUS and are in conference with the nation's military leaders and and know the facts and intelligence on the situation, let us know, and we'll be the first to criticize anything you do as a result of the military's advice. Deal?

If Barack Obama had walked across the Indian Ocean to personally rescue Capt. Phillips, there would still be certain malcontents out there unhappy with his imitation of Christ.

We know you don't like Mr. Obama, and we know you're pissed that in this case, he showed real leadership.

Anonymous said...

Shaw, "they" are the right wingers. On many of their blogs they are saying he should have acted faster. I'm not in agreement with them of course.

Anonymous said...

James, why are you calling me a durfwad? I'm just saying that the wingnuts are saying Obama should have acted more quickly. I am NOT agreeing with them. I'm a huge Obama fan. Chill.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anonymous,

I've had another, actually several, "anonymous" commenters who were virulently anti-Obama. I must admit, I'm a bit p.o.'d today over the rightwing's reaction to the way the rescuse played out.

Anonymous said...

Not me, Shaw, a bigger Obama fan you will not find. I was merely pointing out that, as you said, he could have walked there and rescued the captain himself and the nutbags still wouldn't be satisfied.

James' Muse said...

Sorry Anon, I misread your post. My apologies. Like Shaw, I've been in debate with those that are still criticizing him for this.

dmarks said...

I'm not really an Obama fan, but he handled this well.

TAO said...

dmarks, are you a "fan" of anyone or anything?

James....you cannot battle stupidity unless you get mean and nasty...you are WAY to nice of a guy!

dmarks said...

Tao: McCain. I think he would have made a better president.

Hey, you asked!

J. Kellen said...

McCain? Really? With Sarah Palin as VP? Wow!

Anonymous said...

dmarks: are you serious?? Holy crap. Didn't he admit to not knowing much about the economy? Yea, he would have made a much better president. But then again, she can see Russia from her house!

dmarks said...

J Kellen: Yes. Despite fake Tina Fey quotes.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

We can enjoy the moment but soon enough this will happen again. Based on his leadership and discipline handling this situation, I am very glad Barack Obama is Commander in Chief. This bodes well for our Nation to have someone like this running our Country.

Gordon Scott said...

The administration handled the situation reasonably well. I especially appreciated how the White House kept quiet during the standoff. It was a very appropriate way to handle the situation.

Anonymous said...

dmarks: I realize the line about seeing Russia from her house is a Fey comment, however, she did say you can see Russia from Alaska and cited that as her foreign policy experience. Come on!!!

dmarks said...

Alaska is the largest of the 57 states, after all.

But at least it wasn't Joe Biden. He would have said something like that he had foreign policy experience because Alaska was next to Yemen.

""Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya."

Anonymous said...

dmarks: no comparison. there's a big difference between a gaffe and being downright uninformed. Sorry, you'll never convince me that she's Biden's intellectual match. Not in a million years.

Lynne said...

Insanity is everywhere!!!

Lynne said...

Cool. Now someone is commenting as me. I love those people.

Gordon Scott said...

Which Lynne are you? Are you the new Lynne, or the Arthurstone/Lynne doppelganger?

dmarks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dmarks said...

I thought that the usual "shut up if you don't agree with me" Lynne had a black name, not a blue one.

I never found much similarity between that one and Arthurstone.

Gordon Scott said...

It's hard to say, dMarks. It could be that Arthurstone/Lynne is all three, and just forgot to log in to his regular "Lynne" profile the first time.

As I wrote before, have you ever seen them in the same room at the same time? No? There you go!

Darker conspiracies may yet be uncovered.

Arthurstone said...

Gordon wondered:

'It's hard to say, dMarks. It could be that Arthurstone/Lynne is all three, and just forgot to log in to his regular "Lynne" profile the first time.'


Nope. This is the only profile I have Gordon.

Cheers!

dmarks said...

Yeah right. It's your only profile, but when subjected to explosure to red kryptonite, it changes its visual aspect. Sneaky, sneaky.

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.001casino.com/]free casino games[/url] hinder the latest [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com/]casino las vegas[/url] manumitted no deposit bonus at the chief [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]casino
[/url].