Avast, ye scallywag, beware yonder Navy SEAL team
Posted by The Skyliner on April 15th, 2009Cody Fields
Sports Editor
Attention, terrorists. Do not mess with us.
Freighter Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued Sunday by Navy snipers from Somali pirates who had hijacked his 17,000-ton ship. The action was approved by President Barack Obama twice, according to Associated Press.
Phillips had jumped overboard and tried to swim away, but the pirates easily caught up to him in their own boat and tried to hold him as a bargaining chip.
“I share our nation’s admiration for Captain Phillips’ courage and leadership and selfless concern for his crew and I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of (piracy) in that region,” Obama said. “We have to ensure those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable.”
Though I find an issue with the President’s stipulation that Phillips had to appear to be “in imminent danger” before the Navy could act (Come on. He was being held by pirates with AK-47s.) and the fact that these ships can’t be armed themselves because of ridiculous international laws preventing people from protecting themselves, the message is clear.
We negotiate with terrorists with bullets.
It boils my blood when people rail on deadly force on terrorists and violent criminals. That is all they understand, and that is the only way they know how to communicate. These are not rational people. They are out for not just money but for blood as well. They will stop at nothing and have all or nothing negotiations – Give them what they want, or they’ll kill everyone.
There’s something huge pacifists miss when they denounce deadly force on pirates and terrorists. When they decide to attempt to take lives and violate the rights of innocents, they forfeit their own. This is not only common sense, it’s Biblical. Note that Jesus told his apostles to even sell their coats to buy a sword (Luke 22:36).
I’ve heard it called a tragedy that these pirates died. I say those three perfectly timed headshots made the world a little safer. The pirates may be pledging revenge, but the thought that they may not be able to actually obtain their booty will be in the back of their heads. As the military saying goes, “A distracted soldier is a dead soldier.”
So, in essence, this action has made preventing Somali piracy as well as freeing the dozen ships currently being held hostage a lot easier.
We are trying to prove to the terrorists that we are not going to give in. I hope President Obama will heed Winston Churchill’s words when he said, “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.”