Just to be fair:
He authorized military to use deadly force to free a American being held by pirates of the coast of Somalia. This was a good call.
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Just to be fair:
He authorized military to use deadly force to free a American being held by pirates of the coast of Somalia. This was a good call.
From what I understood he gave a standing call to use lethal force only if they feared the captains life was in danger.
They said the soldiers on the Bainbridge saw the pirates holding an AK to the guys back. I'm guessing much like they had been doing for days now, so the snipers unloaded.
not a valiant call by O in my opinion.He should have unleashed the snipers and or the Seals days ago.
Not Jackson-esque but at least he didn't do what I expected which was sit back and do nothing.
CANCEL THIS WHOLE THREAD.
The On-Scene Commander made the decision to snipe based on Standard Rules of Engagement. THE POTUS DIDN'T DO SHIT.
he did auth force though......I cant stand him still but I do feel somewhat better..........at least for now~! One thing I would have done diffrent is 4 dead, now the one pirate is going to live like a king, and about 4 days earlier.
"He did affirm the military's authorization to use force if the captain's life was in danger, but they already would have had that authorization as part of their standard rules of engagement"
That's like authorizing a soldier to duck when being shot at. Soldiers don't need permission from the POTUS to defend the life of a American civilian. Obama really showed some cojones grande for issuing a common sense and irrelevant order.
My eyes bugged out of my head and I spit coffee all over my desk when I read the title to this thread. I couldnt believe such a thing to ever be posted in the AK forums... I checked out the windows to make sure there were no giant meteors falling to earth, tidal waves of lava rolling across the continent, as I braced myself for the mother of all earth quakes.
I scanned through its contents quickly and with a smirk I quickly sighed relief knowing all was well in the world.
The POTUS could have said the pirates should not be harmed and they would be alive today correct. So I found the 1% of good from our Prez on this issue........HOPE AND CHANGE BABY!
Also I saw a report there going to attack land bases going after the pirates, IMO I think that is the wrong move. Just kill them when they take over boats, no ransoms just kill them.......they are pirates, they want to live to spend the money. If they want to live they will leave our boats alone and go after French ships!
[QUOTE='[AK]Camelwalk;92028']The POTUS could have said the pirates should not be harmed and they would be alive today correct. QUOTE]
Wrong. When the soldiers saw the captains life in danger they made the call to fire. Much like if you were in fear of your life and used force to deal with it even though Mr. O had called you and told you not too.
The solution is simple. Pay the ransom, shoot them as they try to boat home. then send in sailors to recover the cash.
If recovering the cash is an issue, use fake bills.
The other countries can work out their own solutions.
As the details fill in, my impression of the President has wained a bit again. Basically the rules of engagement for this were to not harm anyone to end the scenario. The only option to using force was if the life of the hostage was in imminent danger.
Reading between the lines, it looks to me like the field commander made a tactical decision to end this damn thing. He made the call that the life of the hostage was in imminent danger because they were pointing a gun at him. My guess is they were pointing a gun at him pretty much daily already, and the commander got sick of it. Pretty sure the pirates knew damned well the only thing keeping them alive was the life of their hostage. The commander took real balls here, because if anything had gone wrong, you can bet your ass he would have been hung out to dry.
I'm not impressed with Obama afterall. The man continues to be an empty suit.
I'm dissappointed. But our armed forces did GREAT, despite the empty suit.