I find it all astounding. If conservatives were talking that way about anti-war protests taking place in the old “BM” era (Before Messiah), they would have been screaming about how their first ammendment rights were being trampled. Hey….whatever happened to anti-war protests anyway? It seems like most of the protesting ending after the first week of November ’08, for some odd reason.

When I left it was a different place than it was 22-years ago when I moved there. I hardly recognize it now when I go back for visits.

I am so glad to see that a tea party is taking place there. I plan on attending the local tea party in my town, but if we didn’t have one I would make the drive! I hope the Asheville party goes smoothly and you all have a great turn out!

I’ll be at the Tax Day Tea Party on Wednesday here in Phoenix, camcorder in hand! Looking forward to hearing reports from all over the country!

Have a blessed Easter everybody!
The Captain is free! Dancing at our house!

Had we been prepared, this could have ended very quickly. But as far as I can tell, The Maersk is the only US-flagged merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean. The pirates merely stumbled onto it and were immediately over their heads. By trying to escalate this into an “us versus the Great Satan” incident, they drew in the Somalian government and foolishly raised the stakes for the entire piracy trade.

The world can now take what we and the French just did to the UN and demand Somalia immediate arrest and render to some designated authority the rest of the pirates. This is no longer just about the Maersk but about the legitimacy of the Somalian government.

Great day for the civilized world, bad for pirates and terrorists.

You’ve never been a cop. It isn’t ALL Law Enforcement. Soldiers generally get medals for doing their jobs well. Cops are sued, reassigned and almost always unappreciated.

Seriously, LE has a very specific set of rules. War has a way of clearing those rules out of it’s path. We tend to loose wars when we assign LE style rules to them.

I am a Federal Law Enforcement Officer. I work with FBI every day. Piracy at sea is no place for cops. It is a place for deliberate and forceful action. You are right, the LE ruse (if it was one) made the Somalis think it was Battle of the Black Sea II.. They dropped their guard and the United States Navy punished them severely for it.

Sorry PP, I truly believe power is projected at sea and if we had kept this incident at the LE level, it would reopen the US to attack after attack with bad guys safe in the knowledge that BO will not bother them.. Thanking the Navy again – and, as a shining light about Americans in general, the crew of the Maersk Alabama who showed that they had the minerals to resist – THAT will be in the back of every Somali’s head when they see the next US flagged ship coming down the coast (of course, with our huge tax structure on ships, it will be a long time before they see another). Now, I’d prefer not to divert the thread any longer, I imagine there will be a new one soon.

Remember, we gave the Somalian government a chance to join the civilized world and they refused it. Everyone but the French merely paid the ransom. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the war on terror and national security is law enforcement from border control to immigration law to prosecuting governments to arrest/extradite/rendition/turn over information on suspected terrorists to ultimate arrest and conviction.

World War II officially ended with the Nuremberg trials. It’s ALL law enforcement.

Now the Somalian government’s appeal to to “international community” to jump in and mediate has no legs. Because of that, we are now free to take care of those camps near the shore and Somalia can’t say or do anything about it.

Even in war, there are rules of engagement. Even soldiers can be arrested for murder. This mentality that you can just rush in guns ablazing is medieval. We are supposed to be a civilized country. We are the only superpower on earth. We gave them a civilized option and they refused it. Now they can fear the American and French flags. Italians? Meh.