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You got to be bleeping kidding me. It would be easy to hope, after Sunday's dramatic rescue in the Gulf of Aden, that heroic ship captains, Navy Seal sharpshooters, and an armada of foreign warships will somehow contain pirates off Somalia or keep that anarchic land free of Al Qaeda-friendly Islamists.
So it's unlikely that President Obama, occupied with two wars and costly "nation-building" at home, wants to get to the root of the piracy problem by fixing the failed state of Somalia with an invasion, occupation, or oodles of foreign aid.
And yet, Somali pirates still hold captive more than 200 foreign sailors and more than a dozen ships. American crew members on passing cargo ships might now be particularly targeted in retaliation for the killing of the three pirates.
What's more, Mr. Obama's defense secretary, Robert Gates, cites weakly run countries as a major threat to the US. In a speech last October, he said: "The security of the American people will increasingly depend on our ability to head off the next insurgency or arrest the collapse of another failing state."
Mr. Gates calls for "enlightened counter-measures" to bolster vulnerable states that harbor violent networks. And this week, after the rescue of the kidnapped Capt. Richard Phillips, he went further to say there is "no purely military" solution to Somalia "unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids."
Yes, kids. The pirates were 17 to 19 years old. While they were greedy for a $6 million ransom, they came from poverty and a clannish community resentful of the way that foreign ships have overfished and polluted Somalia's coastal waters. (oh, poor f'ing babies, boofekking hoo)
Somalia's internal chaos, famine, and wars have boggled four presidents since 1992. The US military's 1993 retreat from the capital, Mogadishu, was one reason George W. Bush scorned the idea of nation-building � until 9/11 pushed him to think he might try it in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama has already decided to wind down US involvement in Iraq and devised a plan to eventually turn over Afghanistan to others. Those are clues to his likely action toward Somalia: Only assert US leadership in order to create a coalition of other nations and groups to solve the problem.
That's a difficult calculation � knowing when a distant threat can be contained or whether to use sufficient resources to avert an attack on Americans, either at home or abroad.
The Pentagon's 2008 national defense strategy called for "building up the capacity of fragile or vulnerable" areas to prevent a haven for terrorists, arms smugglers, and drug merchants (and now pirates).
But for now, Obama sees the threat from Somalia as largely a law-enforcement problem. After Sunday's rescue, he said, "We have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes." (I thought they did? 3 Nato rounds)
He may have decided, based on the Iraq war, that America first needs to spend its money and energy at home preventing economic and social collapse. After all, only when Rome was weak were the barbarians able to enter.
But without US leadership, it's unlikely that Europe or the United Nations will do more than support beefing up the international naval presence off Somalia's coast. Obama still needs to keep probing for new ways for all concerned parties to solve, or at least better contain, this thorny problem.
Or, as Gates admits, "All I can tell you is I am confident we will be spending a lot of time in the situation room over the next few weeks trying to figure out what in the world to do about this problem."
Cage-Divorce Deathmatch Survivor and Lib antagonist. Stock maker by sheer luck.
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Not surprising is it? Obama gave the order to kill 3 teenage Muslims that were acting on behalf of the Somalian Coast Guard. Now he has to make amends. Rev Jesse Jackson is in on the act speaking on behalf of the poor, misguided youth.
What a load of male bovine fecal matter.
Steve
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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Hey, it's just money, he can always print more.
George Orwell was a Prophet, not a novelist. Read 1984 and then look around you!
Old cat turd!
"Some men just need killing." ~ Clay Allison.
I am too old to fight but I can still pull a trigger. ~ Me
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So they are just now trying to figure out what to do about the problem? Pathetic.
"Be sure you're right. Then go ahead." Fess Parker as Davy Crockett
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Do you have a link to that article?
Son of a liberal: " What did you do in the War On Terror, Daddy?"
Liberal father: " I fought the Americans, along with all the other liberals."
MOLON LABE
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Do you have a link to that article? http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0414/p08s05-comv.html Obama, like pre-9/11 Bush, may scorn nation-building. But can the US afford not to do it? I will figure out how to get some of that bailout money.
Cage-Divorce Deathmatch Survivor and Lib antagonist. Stock maker by sheer luck.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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I actually heard a local lefty say today that we should just pay the Somali war lords an up front sum of several hundred million bucks a year. The pirates would no longer be a threat or a danger.
This cretin's view is that folks would be safer, both the sailors and the poor children that are forced, (by Bush's failed foreign policy) into a life of piracy.
Sam......
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I actually heard a local lefty say today that we should just pay the Somali war lords an up front sum of several hundred million bucks a year. The pirates would no longer be a threat or a danger.
This cretin's view is that folks would be safer, both the sailors and the poor children that are forced, (by Bush's failed foreign policy) into a life of piracy. I can actually imagine our own Barak taking an "ultra capatalist" view and saying something like that on the grounds that it would be cheaper, and less dangerous to buy them off than to confront them...
Last edited by Pete E; 04/14/09.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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I actually heard a local lefty say today that we should just pay the Somali war lords an up front sum of several hundred million bucks a year. The pirates would no longer be a threat or a danger.
This cretin's view is that folks would be safer, both the sailors and the poor children that are forced, (by Bush's failed foreign policy) into a life of piracy. I have a better idea but it involves carpet bombing........
Liberalism is a mental disorder that leads to social disease.
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Wouldn't it be cheaper to fit a 50 on the front and rear of these ships, hire 4 merchant marines- than pay the millions of ransom?
Cage-Divorce Deathmatch Survivor and Lib antagonist. Stock maker by sheer luck.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Why can't a couple or just or just one Sub quitly go in there and when the mother ships appear a well placed torpedo would end the problem. and then slip back out.
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Campfire Ranger
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"I can actually imagine our own Barak taking an "ultra capatalist" view and saying something like that on the grounds that it would be cheaper, and less dangerous to buy them off than to confront them..."
I'll venture a guess and say no he won't. He'll say arm up and protect yourself or hire the job out. Either way he'll say shoot to kill. And it's not less dangerous to buy them off because they're still there to do it again. With past profit as motivation, why wouldn't they?
Edited to add. It's like giving in to anti hunters and outlawing baiting. That one token gesture won't appease them into sitting down and shutting up. It'll empower them to continue with increased fervor.
Last edited by Archerhunter; 04/15/09.
BAN THE RAINBOW FLAG! PERVERTS OFFEND ME!
"When is penguin season, daddy? I wanna go kill a penguin!" ---- 4 yr old Archerhuntress
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High fence hunting for Somolia Coast Guard? I"m all for it, with limitations of course, summer season, bag limits, slot sizes etc
Cage-Divorce Deathmatch Survivor and Lib antagonist. Stock maker by sheer luck.
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High fence hunting for Somolia Coast Guard? I"m all for it, with limitations of course, summer season, bag limits, slot sizes etc Around here the game and fish regs usually have vermin listed as "no closed season, no bag limit", and very few restrictions on the means of bringing them to bag. Seems like a sound policy to apply off the coast of Somolia.
===================== Boots were made for walking Winds were blowing change Boys fall in the jungle As I Came of Age
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Trigger control, name of the game.
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High fence hunting for Somolia Coast Guard? I"m all for it, with limitations of course, summer season, bag limits, slot sizes etc Around here the game and fish regs usually have vermin listed as "no closed season, no bag limit", and very few restrictions on the means of bringing them to bag. Seems like a sound policy to apply off the coast of Somolia. Sounds good to these ears. Do it right and do it often; send a strong message.
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well I think we should have bailout money to give to kids going to elementary and jr. high school, you know extra lunch money.
that way if they get bullied they can just fork over some money to the bullies and ask them please, oh please stop.
or you could just revert back to old school and have a principal take a paddle to the bullies' azzes in front of the whole school.
take your pick, I know which one I think is more effective.
"This ain't dress rehearsal....it's the life you get to live, make it a good one."
TEAMWORK = a bunch of people doing what I say
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