By Jessi Marlatt
President Barak Obama has had an extremely eventful first 100 days. On day 97, Obama “secretly gave the Pentagon the go ahead… to use force if Phillips’s life was in imminent danger” stated the US News and World Report.
The following morning, he “gave more specific authorization that included allowing a Navy commander to order snipers to take out the pirates if the situation became dire” stated the US News and World Report.
As far as national security is concerned, the plan worked, giving Americans a moment of feel-good which displayed what US News and World Report calls “the new president’s coolness under pressure, his good judgment, and his decisiveness.” But the stakes were low because of the fact that National Security of the homeland was not threatened in any way.
According to Aljazeera “three of the four pirates holding Phillips were killed in the operation while the fourth was taken into custody.”
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Mohammed Adow said: “US forces are reported to have attacked the lifeboat when the pirates were expecting a diplomatic exchange … [and] have taken the remaining pirate to one of their ships in these waters.”
According to the BBC, “The mother of a teenage alleged pirate held over the hostage-taking of a US sea captain this month has appealed to US President Barack Obama to free him.”
Adar Abdurahman Hassan told the BBC her son, only 16 years old is innocent. Abde Wale Abdul Kadhir Muse, the only surviving pirate from the attack ”was allegedly negotiating on a US warship [when] naval snipers shot dead three pirates holding the captain” stated the BBC.
According to the LA Times “The marksmen had moved into position after the White House expanded the authority it had given the world’s most powerful navy against a ragtag foe holding an American hostage. They kept their scopes trained on their Somali targets as prospects for a peaceful resolution seemed to shrivel.”
This seems to be in contradiction to what the international press is reporting. But it is the winners who write the history books.
According to the US News and World Report, during recent decades, Republicans have “effectively branded Democrats as weak on national security, citing among other events President Jimmy Carter’s failed mission to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980 and Bill Clinton’s embarrassing withdrawal of a shipload of U.S. troops from the coast of Haiti in 1993 under the pressure of an armed mob of Haitians.” But Obama is breaking the mold.
Western State Writers Spring 2009 