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What will he do?

Texan

Well-known member
It's 3:00 AM. The phone rings at the White House. It seems that four black kids in an old boat have got a hostage and are holding the FBI and the entire US Navy at bay. :lol:

Obama has let his secretary of state do the talking – the same Hillary Clinton who claimed during the presidential election campaign that he was unfit to answer an emergency 3am call.

It appears that she might have been right. The more time that goes by with our entire Navy in a standoff with four punks, the worse we look to the rest of the world. I thought our status in the world was important to you Obama supporters?

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From The Sunday Times
April 12, 2009

Obama keeps a weather eye on America’s own piracy problem

Sarah Baxter

The radio silence from Barack Obama over the pirate crisis is a sign of his natural caution mixed with a deepening apprehension of the perils of finding himself at sea.

“He is staying apprised of the situation,” was all Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, would say about Captain Richard Phillips, the American merchant seaman being held hostage by Somali pirates.

Obama has let his secretary of state do the talking – the same Hillary Clinton who claimed during the presidential election campaign that he was unfit to answer an emergency 3am call. “These people are nothing more than criminals and we are bringing to bear a number of our assets, including naval and FBI, in order to resolve the hostage situation,” Clinton said. “Piracy may be a centuries-old problem but we are working to bring an appropriate 21st-century response.”

But what might that be? America could use its overwhelming firepower against the pirates or send in an elite naval commando unit. A senior defence official said, “I can guarantee you: every possible approach is being planned as we speak”, including a covert rescue operation to free Phillips.

The administration believes the best course is to “run the pirates out of options”, according to a defence official, rather than risk a botched military operation that could result in Phillips’s death.

It is not enough for some of the more excitable conservative commentators.

Drawing on the language of the Bush-era war on terror, Michael Savage, a radio host, said: “We don’t want police action; we want combat action. We need to retaliate against these Muslim pirates with full military force to let them know that they cannot do this.”

Others believe Obama is displaying the calm resolution that served him so well during the election campaign.

Jimmy Carter’s reputation never recovered from the bungled rescue attempt of Iranian hostages in 1980. Three years later Ronald Reagan chose to withdraw from Lebanon rather than avenge the death of 241 marines at their barracks in Beirut. In 1994 Bill Clinton pulled troops out of Somalia after an angry mob dragged the body of an American soldier through the streets of the capital, Mogadishu.

The failed state of Somalia is already a security nightmare for Obama. Days before the hostage drama, security and defence officials were discussing whether to go after training camps for militant extremists from the Al-Shabab group, which has terrorist links to Al-Qaeda.

Rooting out piracy could require blockading the ports rather than merely patrolling the seas.That, in turn, would be certain to inflame the Muslim extremists who already control a swathe of Somali territory and Obama would have another war on his hands. He would rather speak softly and keep the big stick in the background.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6078520.ece
 
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