Analysis: Obama Scores Win On Pirate Crisis »
Posted By TimALoftis 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Political NewsWASHINGTON - 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.
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fsev418 months, 2 weeks ago
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This incident brought to mind a recent horoscope that I read. It seems to be appropriate to this situation.
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"When mingling with others, your image can be greatly enhanced if you do not use all the clout at your disposal, There is something about power sheathed that gains greater respect."-
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tadair9198 months, 2 weeks ago
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You Are Being Lied To About Pirates
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February 4, 2009
by Johann Hari
http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/you-are-being-lied-t...
In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
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Charlson8 months, 2 weeks ago
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Authorizing the experts (military) the capability to initiate necessary action to save lives is never a bad decision unless those in charge of making them are incompetent. The US did the right thing and bravo to the Captain and his rescuers.
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hyperbola8 months, 2 weeks ago
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What we see here is that Americans are pretty much ignorant about the contributions of US militarism in creating Somali pirates. Another of those things that our mass media never tell us. Frankly this story is pretty much irrelevant "feel good" state propaganda for our military imperialism.
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It seems that Obama is simply continuing the same kind of military and economic imperialism that has made the US so hated in the world (viz Afghanistan and Pakistan in addition to Somalia).
The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia
.... From the late 1970s until just before Siad Barre's overthrow in early 1991, the U.S. sent hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia in return for the use of military facilities which had been originally constructed for the Soviets. These bases were to be used to support American military intervention in the Middle East. The consequences of U.S. military support for the Barre regime on the Somali people was deemed of little importance by American policymakers. The U.S. government ignored warnings throughout the 1980s by Africa specialists, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations that continued American aid to the dictatorial government of Siad Barre would eventually plunge Somalia into chaos.
These predictions proved tragically accurate. During the nearly fifteen years of support by the United States and Italy, thousands of civilians were massacred at the hands of Barre's increasingly authoritarian regime. Full-scale civil war erupted in 1988 and the repression increased still further, with clan leaders in the northern third of the country declaring independence to escape government persecution. In greatly centralizing his government's control, Barre severely weakened traditional structures in Somali society which had kept civil order for many years. To help maintain his grip on power, Barre played different Somali clans against each other, sowing the seeds of the fratricidal chaos to come, which in turn would contribute to mass starvation and spur the ill-fated humanitarian intervention by the United States in 1992.-
hyperbolaComment removed: Spam
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hyperbola8 months, 2 weeks ago
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And, of course, the Bush regime worsened the problem.
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Our Pirates and Theirs
Here's the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean 4. The film opens with Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow dropping anchor in New York harbor. He descends on Wall Street with his mates and, after a quick costume change at Brooks Brothers, storms the boardrooms of Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and other major firms. They don't need sabers to rake in the haul. Jack's a clever pirate. He takes advantage of the tools at hand. Applying mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations, Jack seizes billions of dollars in booty. He distributes huge bonuses to his crew for a job well done. And just before the government steps in to clean up the mess, the pirates scramble back to their ship and set sail.
Quick question: Why are more than a dozen of the world's navies converging on Somalia to battle pirates there instead of sailing into New York to capture the Wall Street pirates? After all, CEOs captured over $20 billion in taxpayer money using tax loopholes, according to an IPS study. Surely the global economy would be made more secure by forcing former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, who doled out $4 billion in executive bonuses even as his company was collapsing, to walk the gangplank than by cracking down on the bands of privateers in the Horn of Africa. ....
...ast forward to the latest piracy news. The newspapers have been full of stories about gangs preying on vessels passing through the Suez Canal and near the Somali coast. They seized dozens of ships last year - including a Saudi tanker with $100 million worth of crude oil that yielded a $3 million ransom - with the help of fast boats, GPS, and submachine guns. The pirates are currently negotiating for a comparable ransom before releasing a Ukrainian vessel that has 33 Russian tanks, heavy artillery, and grenade launchers.
As Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) contributor Rubrick Biegon points out, the Somali pirates did not start out as Jack Sparrows. "Piracy in Somalia began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks," he writes in Somalia Piracy and the International Response. "Desperate fishermen started attacking trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons, leading the local fishermen to turn to other types of commercial vessels. The pirates prefer to call themselves the Somali 'coast guard,' noting that, prior to the recent spate of hijackings, they organized themselves to defend their communities from overfishing and, according to several accounts, to protect Somalia's coastline from toxic dumping by foreign vessels."-
hyperbolaComment removed: Spam
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hyperbola8 months, 2 weeks ago
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Of course, our mass media also do not tell Americans that the next wave of anti-american "terrorists" (or freedom fighters) is likely to come out of Africa due to our increasing military and economic imperialism there.
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U.S. Militarism and the New Scramble for Africa
...Africa has become a new frontier for U.S. military empire under the guise of the “Global War on Terror.” In this modern-day “scramble for Africa,” the United States seeks to protect and secure vital oil supplies, deter Chinese expansion into African economies, and anchor U.S. forces on the African continent.
Indeed, U.S. foreign policy toward Africa has a long and complex history. During the Cold War, African nations were used as pawns in post-colonial proxy wars, an experience that had a devastating impact on African peace and development. After 9/11, U.S. arms sales, funding, and military training poured into North Africa and the Horn in the form of counter-terrorism initiatives. And the United States’ role in Africa is only set to grow as the U.S. government perceives the continent of Africa as increasingly important for its national interests, both military and economic. For instance, the United States has called African oil a “national strategic interest.” West Africa already provides 12% of U.S. crude oil imports, and experts estimate that by 2020 the United States will be receiving 25% of its oil from Africa. With oil, comes military involvement. President Bush has called for an Africa Command, a base structure system to be developed by 2008 to oversee “military operations on the African continent.” This development follows the U.S. pattern of extracting natural resources and aiding factions in some of Africa’s most bloody conflicts: thus further destabilizing the continent. This expansion of an American strategic geopolitical military base in Africa will strengthen the U.S. military’s presence in the Gulf of Guinea to aid oil extraction processes and will work to further militarize the Horn of Africa in support of the administration’s “war on terror.” U.S. troops are already on the Horn of Africa carrying out operations within Somalia and on its border with Kenya. ....
http://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/3721-
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sinophil498 months, 2 weeks ago
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Hyperbola - I gave you a pos because the West does have much to blame for the woes that Somalia finds itself in. However, in the specific case of the Maersk Alabama and Capt. Phillips, I have to say that I feel happy about his release and the killing of the pirates.
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In case this detail gets lost, I must point out that the Maersk Alabama was carrying 5000 tons of relief supplies bound for Somalia anyway. How can anyone justify trying to hold for ransom a ship carrying supplies that would help thousands of your countrymen?
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned5 Replies
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pcknowledge8 months, 2 weeks ago
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"Obama also should have made public statements regarding his position on the rising piracy and how his administration will deal with it, whether on-camera or off"
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Just a question, do you think President Obama should also let Somalia's government and everyone in the world know what steps he is planning to take to prevent such incidents from taking place in the future? Suppose President Obama is planning to have the navy, the military and/or our ally's monitor certain places on the high seas, should he shout it out on National TV?
I think President Obama did the right thing by not revealing what his plans were when this was taking place, or what his plans will be in the future to prevent this from happening again. As for how long it took to save the Captain, none of us know the details of the rescue operation, so we can't comment on how long it should have taken. -
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