Excuse Me, Mr. Lawyer. Can We Kill Some Pirates Now?
The good news is that President Obama finally authorized the military to kill the pirates who had held an American citizen hostage for five.
The bad news is that President Obama couldn’t give the authorization until he had cleared it with a few government lawyers, which is why it took five days.
Obama’s involvement in the decision to authorize lethal force was legally required, officials said, because it was a hostage situation, not combat, and unrelated to the already authorized U.S. effort against Al Qaeda and other terror groups, officials said.
“It’s not a combat operation, so the lawyers wanted to ensure this was done right,” said a second defense official.
Yeah, might as well make sure everything was done “right”, just like we did in the days before 9/11. Going back to the bad old days when lawyers ran our military policies couldn’t possibly end badly, could it?
Of course, the adminstration could also have done a quick internet search for “Barbary Pirates” or “Mayaguez incident” just to see how we’ve handled such attacks in the past. That would have gotten Captain Phillips out of harm’s way a couple days sooner.
So, yes, President Obama eventually took the right decision. Good for him, but I’m not ready to give him a cookie for it. When pirates attack American shipping, we should send forth our military to destroy them and their operation, which ensures that pirates will not attack our shipping well into the future. That is not only a no-brainer but the only right answer. He gets no great credit from me for doing what he is supposed to do later than he should have because he had to stop and ask permission first. To get the gold star and the A++, he’s going to have to exceed expectations.
Thomas Jefferson killed pirates so effectively that, until last week, no American ship has been attacked by pirates in 200 years. I suggest that President Obama use Jefferson as his guide for dealing with future piratical hostility.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Barack Obama to Use Soldiers for Worldwide Photo Op
- Thanks to Our President, Rendition is the New Black
- Suddenly, the President Learns That Rush Is a Smart Man with Time on His Hands
Category: President Barack Obama, The World At Large
"Thomas Jefferson killed pirates so effectively that, until last week, no American ship has been attacked by pirates in 200 years."
For the record, the Second Barbary War ended on July 3, 1815. And it was not until then that US ships stopped being attacked and the US stopped paying tribute. The president at the time was James Monroe. Jefferson should be commended for his efforts, but he was not entirely successful. And American-owned ships have been attacked many times in the Malacca Straight throughout the past few decades. They were mostly flying Liberian flags (like damn near every ship on the ocean), but they were still American.
As for the legal issues, well, they're worked them out now. The only delays will be because you need to use negotiation to get people to a place where you can actually shoot them. Hostage takers need to be made comfortable enough to make a mistake. And you wait for that mistake to get a good shot.
That said, our snipers are awesome! I'm a fan of target shooting, and I can say pulling off three simultaneous perfect head shots takes a lot of skill even when the targets are stationary. It gets a lot harder when your position and your target are moving. Those SEAL snipers are downright scary. What I can't figure out is this: how do you sync each other's heart rates? Normally with a tough shot, you sync your heartbeats and your breathing, and the pull the trigger when they're just right. But that seems hard to do with three people. I guess these guys are so good that they don't need to do that.
I'll note that, in fairness to Jefferson, he was undercut by his own party. He wanted to keep fighting until the Barbary States gave in on the tribute issue. But Congress cut the funding and redirected their efforts towards westward expansion. Jefferson may have failed, but it wasn't his fault.
And in fairness to Madison, I was wrong about who was president. My memory failed me, but that's no surprise. It was Madison who finally took out the Barbary pirates, not Monroe. But Madison really had little to do with it. He was drunk and bought into the desires of Stephen Decatur. And Decatur really wanted a chance to finish it off. Decatur wasn't exactly happy with how his first war turned out. He really wanted to finish the job. And he did. And the president of the United States of America had nothing to do with it. Madison put pen to paper and Decatur did the rest. Decatur's methods were less than honorable for the day, but he got the job done. And he did it so well that many lives were saved.
But Decatur had one good man behind him. And that man wrote the Constitution so that a Navy might exist. Without that Constitution, Decatur would never have been the hero he was. Jefferson was that man, but he did so many things that we forget that concept. I'd say he was the mensch of the day, but Franklin surely held that title.