Heard on the radio this morning, that four Americans, missionaries, were slaughtered by pirates who had boarded and hijacked Americans' yacht Quest, off of the coast of Somalia.
There is only one remedy for this, and we'd not put a single Marnie's life at risk while inflicting this punishment on the Somali villages from whence the pirate's "mother ships" embark on their murderous voyages.
We don't need to storm "The Shores of Tripoli". First, that'd be nearly a thousand miles off target. Second, we have the means and technology to inflict the suitable punishment with virtually no risk to U.S. personnel.
It is time to conduct a live "field test"with the MOAB on the specific village which is the homeport of the pirates responsible for this atroccity.
Will our current C in C have the historical clarity, the courage or resolve to do so? Of course not.
Now then, my apologies for well over a year of absence. Those of you who read the blogs know that I've always been hangin' out at various comment threads and the like. But, after losing both my Dad and my cat in the space of three short months, I just didn't have the gas to motor forward here.
The post previous to this will show that I lost my beloved Harley in November of '09. My Dad passed in January of '10, very shortly after returning to Orlando, from a Christmas road trip that brought him here to Galveston, onward to my Step-Mom's family in Oklahoma, and then returning to Orlando. He made that drive on nothing but courage, nerve and faith, as his heart kept trying to "die" on him, pretty much the whole trip. It was his last hurrah, and he knew it.
I'll type more of him later, but I'm proud of him, and always will be.
Things are good here at home. Iris and I managed together, to rebuild the house from the damage inflicted by Ike. I'm doing work that I enjoy, and that pays well. We're again "staff" to a pair of cats, brother and sister which we took in as wee kittens. They're a year old now, and have turned out to be tremendously entertaining, loving furballs.
In the days to come, I'll post the last photos extant of the New Dawn, as she lay shipwrecked, grounded an eighth of a mile inland, in the aftermath of Ike.
So, the murder upon the high seas of four of my fellow Citizens has drawn me from my seclusion, to once again take keyboard in hand, and say my piece here in this moribund space.
Fortunately, I only lost my boat to a storm. The four American missionaries lost their lives. And to do so at the hands of known barbarians was preventable, and is punishable.
I understand that the U.S. Navy has captured a few of those responsible. Those should be summarily executed, strung up by the neck on the ship's upperworks, and sailed close ashore to Somali villages.
The sad thing is, the C in C could do this with no real political fallout. No nation on the planet would sincerely mourn a Somali pirate village, and the support for so doing here at home would be overwhelming. Likely a 20 point bump in the polls within 12 hours of the blast.
What he does next will speak volumes as to his fealty to the Citizens of the United States of America. Personally, I'm not holding my breath that he'll in any way exercises his powers to bring about an honorable solution.
Meanwhile, I bow my head and pray for the families and friends of the lost yachtsmen.
And, for the future of our country.
Sadly, too, too true. Our current CinC has no more right to that title than the mole on my right ass cheek. He'll have someone make a statement deploring the whole situation as he cowers behind the First Amazon.
Reagan bombed the shit out of Qaddafi and we had not trouble from him for going on 30 years. In fact his shit was so weak that when we invaded Iraq he sued for peace and supposedly gave up his aggressive ways. We left him alone as long as the oil was flowing. Now TRT (Hillary) deplores the bloodshed there. We'd likely have had a lot less loss of life had the bombs fell a few meters differently.
Posted by: kdzu | February 22, 2011 at 07:21 PM
It's great to have you back, Jim. Yours is a voice that should be heard.
Posted by: Jay G. | February 22, 2011 at 08:52 PM
Welcome Aboard, Jim! You may feel like an Admiral without Command, but I'm always ready to listen.
Say, is there a reloading room in that sea-level cottage you and Iris built, barely moved in to, then re-built?
Posted by: Rivrdog | February 23, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Jay G., thanks amigo. Feels good to be back on this end.
'Dawg.... I have a 10'x10', dedicated BATFE. "Bedroom of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Entertainment".
Has a 6' loading bench, very large gunsafe, wine cooler/bar, 200+ count cigar humidor, and the house's central computer/server/phone matrix.
I have a Dillon Square Deal loader, in .45 and .38/.357. No rifle press as yet.
The finish-out of the BATFE is heading towards that of a high-end martini lounge. It's a bit opposite of the stereotypical "man cave", as I want Iris to be as welcome there as I am.
I've got a rollaway bed in the closet there, so it can help accomodate one extra guest, beyond the two that the actual guest room can accomodate.
Yes, there's more room here than on the boat.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Posted by: Jim | February 23, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Can't tell you how pleased I am to see your smiling URL, despite the tragic circumstances that occasioned your post. And I'm sorry about your dad. My mom is still with me, at 93, but I can see that my time for loss isn't that far away.
It's good to hear you'rve rebuilt, too. We were lucky last year. I'm hoping for more luck in this one.
As for the Somalis and the s/v Quest and her crew - they've been up to their tricks for years and it needs to be stopped. I had friends who went through the tsunami in Phuket and then followed that same course to the Med. They made it, but a lagging group got into trouble in the Straits and they lost one boat. Too many people have watched too much Johnny Depp. Pirates aren't romantic.
Don't be such a stranger ;-)
Posted by: shoreacres | February 23, 2011 at 04:24 PM
Glad to see you back Jim...
Posted by: Rick | February 24, 2011 at 05:09 AM
Welcome back Jim. My condolences on the loss of Family members.
An even more politically acceptable solution to the Somali pirate issue would simply be the eradication of every pirate ship as it approaches the target vessel. With today's UAV capability, the danger to the bait ship would be negligible. And even less if it were outfitted with some nice friendly AN/GAU-8a 30mm Avenger seven-barrel gatling gun, or a MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System.
Methinks they would run out of pirates and small boats real quick like.
Posted by: Markshere2 | March 01, 2011 at 06:32 PM