U.S. Warships Approach Somali Pirates

Three U.S. warships are now in the area where Somali Pirates, after attacking and being repelled from U.S. merchant ship Maersk Alabama, which was ironically in the area to deliver humanitarian aid to the shattered East African Coast, are floating in a life raft with their lone hostage, Captain Richard Phillips. The pirates holding the captain hundreds of miles off the Somali Coast in the Indian Ocean have demanded $2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety

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The high-seas standoff between the U.S. Navy and the pirates, according to Reuters, is presenting President Barack Obama with a nasty new dilemma - a dilemma that this writer believes the president is ill equipped to handle properly, and the pirates know it, hence the reason for their audacity to attack American vessels in the first place. The French, who in the face of the Global War on Terror ran and hid while joining the "Hate Bush" derangement syndrome, used their special forces to storm a yacht held by pirates elsewhere in the Indian Ocean on Friday in an assault that killed one hostage, but freed four. Shocking, yet gratifying, to see the French finally realize what kind of actions need to be taken. On Saturday pirates seized another vessel, a U.S. owned tugboat with 10 Italians among its 16-member crew. The destroyer USS Bainbridge is currently near the lifeboat and has been joined by the USS Boxer. The Boxer has a crew of about 1,000 and can carry around 2,000 U.S. Marines, and is equipped with a hospital and dozens of attack planes and helicopters. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton is also in the area. Captain Phillips tried to escape the lifeboat by jumping overboard, at one point. He was unable to get too far out away from his capters, however, and was quickly recaptured. Other captured vessels under the control of pirates have entered the area to give support to the lifeboat full of pirates. Obama's weak approach to the war with Radical Islam, and his failure to take decisive action in this crisis regarding the Somali pirates, is emboldening the pirates and Islam, and we will see more attacks against U.S. vessels in the future as a result.