By DemocracyRules
Obama will take credit for this, but he did nothing. He did not order the use of force. His explicit instructions to the Navy were to negotiate. The video of the Navy press conference makes that clear. The Navy had been ordered to negotiate, and they were doing that. Vice-Admiral Gortney makes that statement at time 00:14 of the video.
A few days ago, Obama confirmed the Navy's right to take take action if the Captain's life was endangered. Obama was simply reiterating US law. All this would have happened if Obama had been on Jupiter.
American law says if someones' life is in imminent danger, an American can take lethal action to prevent that person's death.
The Navy observed that Captain Philips' life was in imminent danger, because a pirate had aimed his AK-47 at the Captain's back. One or more sharpshooters on the USS Bainbridge, which was about 40 yards away from the pirate boat, shot three pirates dead. A fourth surrendered.
Obama was not there, was not in direct communication with the Navy personnel on-site, and contributed nothing to the process. His explicit instructions to the Navy had been to negotiate.
Click on the picture for the video of the press conference from Sunday afternoon, April 12.
Or View/download in higher resolution:
Pro Patria, Pro Veritas
Of course he didn't. There was a standing order to act if Capt. Phillips' life was endangered. Obama was still sending the pirates milk and cookies.
Posted by: DavidB | April 12, 2009 at 06:11 PM