Wingnut Pundits Who Trashed Obama over Pirate Stand-Off, Proved Wrong for the Zillionth Time:
Kenneth T. Walsh at US News & World Report gives details of President Obama's handling of the Somali pirates' holding of Captain Richard Phillips hostage.
The crisis began early in the morning of April 8, when Somali pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama. The crew captured one pirate, and three others took Captain Phillips hostage. He talked them, along with one other, into getting into the lifeboat and keeping him as the hostage, as a way of saving his crew.
The US Navy, aware of the danger to Phillips's life if it took precipitate action, brought in experienced FBI hostage negotiators.
This attempt to end the crisis through hostage negotiation was made fun of by the American right wing:April 9, 2009, Fox Cable News:
'GLENN BECK: Have you heard this one? The U.S. Navy is now looking to the FBI for advice on how to free an American cargo ship captain. Oh, no, they're sending over a hostage negotiator. Yes, I hope we're bringing them some hot cocoa over to the Somali pirates! The U.S. warship is near the pirates' drifting light boat and the Navy doesn't know how to fix this one. Wow!'
What Beck does not say is that a frontal US naval attack on the lifeboat at that stage might well have killed Phillips. Beck actually made fun of the US Navy, implying that it was dawdling about instead of going in with guns blazing. What kind of person makes fun of the professionals of the US Navy and the FBI while they are trying to do their jobs in saving a true American hero? This kind of snark is not patriotic or manly. It is just a little girl's hissy fit masquerading as macho.
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