Capt. Phillips Rescued from Somali Pirates Following Obama's Orders for "Decisive Action"; Wingnuts Decry Obama Anyway

by Damozel |  Happily, the five-day stand-off is over.. (AFP) Obama ordered the Navy snipers to take "decisive action" if at any times Phillips was at risk.(AFP)  That's what they did and not a moment too soon, according to MSNBC.

The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.

CNN reports:

- U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates "had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back," a military official said Sunday....

The captain, who'd been held in a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean since Wednesday, was rescued uninjured, Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters.

Capt. Richard Phillips' ship, the Maersk Alabama, was stormed by pirates 350 miles off Somalia on Wednesday morning. He was "resting comfortably" on the USS Boxer after his rescue Sunday night, according to the Navy. (CNN)

Following the US rescue of Phillips, Obama said:

"I am very pleased that Captain Phillips has been rescued and is safely on board the USS Boxer,'' Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. "His safety has been our principal concern, and I know this is a welcome relief to his family and his crew. I am also very proud of the efforts of the U.S. military and many other departments and agencies who worked tirelessly to secure Captain Phillips's safe recovery.

"We remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region,'' Obama said. "To achieve that goal, we must continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, be prepared to interdict acts of piracy and ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.

"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,'' the president said. "His courage is a model for all Americans.''(The Swamp)

And now....now the nation is overwhelmed by the applause and cries of approval from the crime-hating representatives of the far right!  At last...Obama gets it right and even Right...because:  three, count 'em, three dead pirates!  Happy endings all round!

Yeah.  Kidding.

Reading the right-wing reactions to the resolution of the Somali pirate hostage crisis is like looking at the classic optical illusion figure that has a different number of prongs at one end than at the other: at one end you see President Obama ordering the use of force, successfully of course ... and at the other end you see the situation as wingnuts see it, with Obama and Democrats still, somehow, feckless and weak, even though the military reaction Obama approved worked.  (Steve M)

If you're interested, Steve M. has examples.  Yes, it's a treat to read the contortions that allow them to dis Obama while simultaneously praising "the Easter Seals."  (Yes, they really used that phrase.)  It's an Easter miracle because Jesus loves violence and hates pirates!  (Turns out he really didn't mean what he said to that other crucified criminal.)

At Balloon Juice, John Cole asks a rhetorical question.

I found the whole notion (as advanced by a few simpletons) that this was somehow a test of Obama to be laughably absurd. Our military budget is a half a trillion dollars a year. If we can not handle a couple pirates without the hands on involvement of the President, we need to just disband the Navy. Is it going to be a test of Obama every time some criminal somewhere takes a hostage?

At Comments from Left Field, Kathy says:

Tigerhawk, who on the day the ship was seized by the pirates, recommended that “We need to know why our flag did not deter these bozos and take immediate steps to restore their respect for it, even if we have to bomb every pirate port on the Somali coast and suffer the charge of “disproportionality” from the international law fetishists,” today had the grace to acknowledge that this best case outcome happened on Pres. Obama’s watch: “Great news, and — yes, I’ll say it — tip o’ the hat to President Obama for signing off on the mission.”

That flicker of decency and rationality, unfortunately, is a limited occurrence on the right. [See AJ Strata for a very classy post that I hadn't seen before.] Blackfive reacts to the successful resolution — without paying a ransom and with minimal violence (and at that only affecting the criminals themselves) — of an international hostage crisis thusly:

Looks like we got in the game, freed the captain and whacked three of the four bad guys. Well done.

Our country and it’s [sic] leader especially are getting Joe Biden’s promised tests. The pirates didn’t hit any US flagged ships until now and they and many other bad actors will be looking to see if there are any teeth left in the big dog.

Again, this is after the captain was rescued unharmed, three of the four pirates were killed and the fourth taken into custody, and the ship returned to its proper owners.

Blackfive reader Ken nods his head:

… I totally agree with your points. Obama has presented a weak image to the world and all of the bad actors are responding as expected.

Ed Morrissey is another one who would have been happier had this incident been handled in a more confrontational way:

From now on, though, the “negotiations” should be us telling the pirates and their envoys that if they surrender, we’ll let them live.  If not, no quarter.  That should be our first and last offer.  If we keep dancing around with Somali “elders” and treat pirates like bank robbers, we’re going to be doing a lot more of these negotiations in the future.

The most sarcastic words I can come up with are just totally inadequate as a response to this. All I can say is that I am happy that Captain Phillips’ family will not be standing in a graveyard watching his coffin being lowered into the ground, and that all four of the pirates have either been killed or captured. That’s good enough for me.

Those are pretty bad.  At Whiskey Fire, Thers has excerpted the wingnut post with the highest "gibbering gibberish derangedly" factor.  "I'm going to notch this as one of the craziest fucking things I have ever read on the internet. And I feel pretty confident about that assessment," he says.  It is choice.  

But Thers' comments on that post apply broadly to the general wingnut reaction. 

In, what, less than two months on the job, Obama has so weakened the American navy that it is no longer omnipresent throughout the entire coast of Africa, ready to swoop in *kapow* and quickly and efficiently resolve tense hostage situations at sea in a matter of hours?

And the sailors said to themselves, omigod, if Bush were president, we'd be golden, but now that Obama is in the Oval Office, we had better fight back?...

MORE. It occurs to me that this is what happens when snark becomes totally untethered from argument. The author of this knows two things:

1. I like sarcasm.

2. I do not like Barack Obama.

And that's it. He doesn't know anything else. (Whiskey Fire)

Pat Cunningham:

 Imagine what the reaction would have been had Obama triumphantly strutted about on Sunday in a manner even vaguely reminiscent of George W. Bush’s infamous “mission accomplished” performance in his manly flight suit. The craziness on the political right would have been off the charts.

At Lawyers, Guns, & Money, Robert Farley writes:

• I'm no marksman, but hitting a pirate in the head on a moving platform at 100' from a moving platform sounds ridiculously difficult. Kudos to the skill of the professionals on board USS Bainbridge.

• Conservative hysteria aside, this is not a "walk the plank" scenario. If the USS Bainbridge executed the fourth pirate, who either surrendered or was conducting negotiations, then we'd have such a scenario. What went down, on the other hand, is much more akin to the resolution of a domestic hostage taking/kidnapping scenario.

• I don't feel at all bad for the pirates. They were given ample opportunity to surrender and face trial, and under the circumstances they certainly must have understood that maintaining ransom demands could be fatal. An understanding of why pirates act (both to survive AND to get rich) cannot preclude law enforcement activity.

I don't feel bad for them either. 

But if you are interested in the view of Somalis, at Huffington Post Michel Vasquez has posted an essay written by Somali-Canadian activist K'naan on why the Somalis don't condemn their pirates.

More at Memeorandum....

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