I needed to post this update, regarding my earlier post on how to deal with pirates. I had previously said to give the scoundrels thirty minutes to free their hostages, or face the consequences. In retrospect, that could actually increase the odds that the hostages would all be killed because the captors would know their imminent fate and have nothing to lose by killing the hostages first. In other words, why show all your cards, especially when American lives are hanging in the balance. However, I made those remarks with the presumption that we would be having to rescue Captain Richard Phillips from inside the Somali Pirate’’s safe haven in the Port of Mombasa. The mission undertaken by our Navy Seals today, to rescue the American hostage taken last week, was a better idea … just go in and get him out before the pirates were able to make it to the port; where the job would have been much more involved. CONGRATS!
That being said, the FBI negotiator had been unsuccessful in convincing the pirates to release the hostage. So, what I said about negotiating turned out to be correct. On the other hand, did the decision maker who sent the FBI negotiator in believe that particular course of action would accomplish two objectives? First, it would be the politically correct posture to meet the general expectations. Then, second, it would send a message to the pirates that we were coming from a weak position, enabling us to take advantage of the element of surprise; knowing the Navy Seals were preparing to get the job done right and ultimately, sending a much stronger message to other pirates and terrorists?
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