I agree with you Dr.D.. This ^^^ statement would apply here as well. This should have been handled as soon as the 1st destroyer rolled in. Why should the pres have to make the call.

 

Yep, as my crazy as a loon war mongering old fart of a father-in-law says, "what good is it to be the big dog if you can't take a big bite?" Somehow, that seems to make sense.

And so yesterday they take 60 more hostages and fail in an attempt to take another American ship? Really, you guys need to pencil my name in on the next ballot (along with my running mate Pat). We'll fix this shit in about a week.

 

Yeah, I got no problems voting for you, but Pat will try to re-instate NAMBLA....and I just can't vote for someone like that.


And Dirt, the only reason we didn't attack them sooner was because we didn't want the captain of OUR ship to be killed in the process.

The US won't go to Somalia again. We went and got our asses handed to us by a rag tag bunch of warlords. (Remember Blackhawk down"? It wasn't just a movie you know.) It's a lawless nation, so we won't go in.....There is no designated enemy.....Everyone there wants to fight eachother until someone (like the US) comes in....Then they all turn on the big guy on the porch.....together....and kick his ass. Then they go back to fighting eachother. F-ck them skinnys. They can each shit forever for all I care. I'm all for putting armed guards on the ships like we do on planes. You only need about 5 or 6 per ship.

 

^ Or a simple 50 caliber deck gun.

 

Ahhh, but that's the beauty of it all. We don't have to GO anywhere to get the job done. Some corporal sitting in Lenexa, Kansas could take care of business for us.

One US captain would be a small price to pay to keep the rest of the US captains and crews safe from the pirates. That's how all military operations work. You make a calculated gamble on the lives of a few, hoping they make it, but knowing if they don't all make it out but the mission is successful then you have advanced your cause. If you do nothing, the danger for everyone increases. That's why none of the third world shithole countries are afraid to fuck with us. The know that we don't have the balls to do anything about it. The know we will try to talk them to death. And while we are talking to a brick wall, North Korea and Iran are a couple of crazies who are developing nukes and laughing at us at the same time. You have to show the pimp hand occasionally. It did wonders for the attitudes of Japan and Germany.

 

LOL @ "the pimp hand".

IDK, I think they did it the right way. They waited until the pirates made a mistake, and killed three of the four of them. Basicly all the pirates on board the "raft". Did you SEE the "raft" though? It was not really a "raft" in the conventional sense. It was almost fully enclosed. (In fact, I think it WAS fully enclosed) The only way they could see inside was throught he portholes on the sides....They did it the right way IMO, because all three pirates aboard are now dead, and the captain is still alive. The fourth pirate had already gone over to the Navy vessel for medical attention and to try to negotiate. Pffff...pussy.

 

I was just wondering was anybody here in somalia?? I was, Centcom pulled my out of BNCOC to go there and help deal with this "black hawk down" mission...The real problem was the UN, not the US we were asked to follow bullshit policies and not given the reins to carryout an effective objective..There's more to this but I'm not at liberity to say here on this forum...Basically the US stepped into a turd pile and after capturing a certain warlord cleared from the country the best it could given the circumstances..I will say this I'm a 4 time vet Grenada,Honduras,Desert storm, and Somalia and through all of these deployments Somalia was the one I was worried about my life in.....shit was ugly there..I would love to see the US go back and wipe out the whole country,but problem is you can't tell the good from the bad there and their own leadership(or lack of) won't lift a finger to help themselves. I'm sorry just had to vent back to happy thoughts...happy thoughts ...cooling down getting better....yogi......yogi ahhhh

by the way I'm with you 95 coBrasvt...f them beeches

 

No, I wasn't there. But thank you and all the others like you who were. I signed on with the Marines in '67 when I was in college. Did the officer training at Quantico, graduated 2nd in the whole place and was just waiting till graduation from college to get my commission and head for Vietnam. I was discharged, 2 months before graduation because my knees went south on me and they thought I had ulcers. Turned out it was just bad acid reflux but I didn't get to go...hence the reason we didn't win that war. That's kind of bummed me out since then because I lost a lot of friends over there in a dumb ass war where we didn't want to do what was necessary to win and I was sitting on my ass stateside being kept out of it. That was when my bad attitude started and it hasn't improved since then. As a matter of fact, I see no hope of it improving any time soon because we are still fighting wars the same way. Rules of engagement my ass. I liked Patton's rules...kill the other poor bastard before he kills you. Simple and results in a win everytime and ends the war a lot sooner saving lives on both sides.

I used to think that we were going to piss away everything that made America great. But, I thought I would be gone before that happened. But now, with the fantastic crowd we have in Washington driving the bus, I'm reasonably certain I'll get to watch it happen now. Lucky me.

 

Dirt, you are depressing me now....*sigh*....460, I wasn't in Somalia. (Navy here) I was in the first gulf conflict. You know the one....When we went to the Gulf and the bad guys came out shooting at our destroyers and frigats(sp) in their little speedboats with .50 cals. Yeah, it was humorus. I have a friend who was involved in the Black Hawk Down incident thoguh. He said it was a shit storm and seriously f-ed up. He said basicly the same thing you just did about the UN and the US.

I'm currently trying to get back into the military. (trying to go Army this time though. F that Navy stuff) Unfortunatly, they are fighting me tooth and nail. They are begging people to enlist, and here I am in the front of the room looking like horshack, going OH!!!!! OH!!!! OH!!! OH!!! And volunteering to go in and get busy....

Dirt, The US is sorry it kicked you out back then. Please come back and finish this one for us. Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
America

 

I don't hold it against the US. Sheeut. I was going into Force Recon in Nam. My ass would have been dead 40 years ago. I'm sure there are those who would gladly turn the clock back just for that though. Anyway, I'm sorry I depressed you...but just think how depressed I am. We Baby Boomers are really depressed.