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Forums - General - What should Obama do about somali pirates?

Kenology on 15 April 2009
Kasz216 said:
Kenology said:
Kasz216 said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
Kasz216 said:

This doesn't happen on a frequent basis.  This is the first time an American ship has been attacked by pirates in nearly 200 years

 

Pirate attacks in Africa do especially Nigeria and Somalia waters. 

Pirate attacks against US vessels... are a function of how often US vessels go into those waters more likely than what flag they're flying.

We go there... a lot.  I mean we're one of the leading sources of aid to Africa.

I mean we already were and Bush tripled the amount.

Unfortunately he also quadrupled the structural adjustment shackles stipulations...

 

The africans didn't seem to mind much.  He had some unheard of approval ratings on the continent.

Like the 80% range.  I'm not even sure when the last time was that we liked our own president that much.

Which Africans though?  Lot'sa countries in that there continent!

Biggest aid recipients are the Egyptians easily, followed by the Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans, etc.  Shame most of that money goes to the elite and social programs are severly underfunded.  Extensive research and exposes have been done on this, so I could talk about it forever.  But those approval ratings surely went down when he launched the AFRICOM initiative and saw massive resistance from all over the Continent - even from the stooges in the aforementioned countries.

 



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Kasz216 on 15 April 2009
Kenology said:
Kasz216 said:
Kenology said:
Kasz216 said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
Kasz216 said:

This doesn't happen on a frequent basis.  This is the first time an American ship has been attacked by pirates in nearly 200 years

 

Pirate attacks in Africa do especially Nigeria and Somalia waters. 

Pirate attacks against US vessels... are a function of how often US vessels go into those waters more likely than what flag they're flying.

We go there... a lot.  I mean we're one of the leading sources of aid to Africa.

I mean we already were and Bush tripled the amount.

Unfortunately he also quadrupled the structural adjustment shackles stipulations...

 

The africans didn't seem to mind much.  He had some unheard of approval ratings on the continent.

Like the 80% range.  I'm not even sure when the last time was that we liked our own president that much.

Which Africans though?  Lot'sa countries in that there continent!

Biggest aid recipients are the Egyptians easily, followed by the Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans, etc.  Shame most of that money goes to the elite and social programs are severly underfunded.  Extensive research and exposes have been done on this, so I could talk about it forever.  But those approval ratings surely went down when he launched the AFRICOM initiative and saw massive resistance from all over the Continent - even from the stooges in the aforementioned countries.

 

Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Darfur (Where people name their children george Bush), Tanzenia, Ghana.... etc.

Also it was after Africom.

Why is he popular?  Yeah all the aid helps.  Something like 1.3 million on retrovirals for aids rather then 50,000.  Being at the forefront when it came to the atrocities of Darfur....

 



Coca-Cola on 16 April 2009

So, this problem was caused by the Americans? Man we really mess things up around the world.

Also,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090416/ap_on_re_af/piracy
the French and the Americans are fighting back. wonder what's next.



Tyrannical on 16 April 2009

Ron Paul wants to issue Letters of Marque.
I'd love to get a small PT boat with a 25MM cannon and hunt me some pirates.



Yet, today, America's leaders are reenacting every folly that brought these great powers [Russia, Germany, and Japan] to ruin -- from arrogance and hubris, to assertions of global hegemony, to imperial overstretch, to trumpeting new 'crusades,' to handing out war guarantees to regions and countries where Americans have never fought before. We are piling up the kind of commitments that produced the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.
 — Pat Buchanan – A Republic, Not an Empire

Kenology on 16 April 2009

@ Kasz - Alright, lemme see that article on the approval rating if you can still find it. I'm interested in seeing it.



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megaman79 on 16 April 2009

If Somalia really has oil and other minerals THAT would be the best solution. They need an economy and infrastructure that can help the Somalians.

What should the US do? How about FIND OSAMA BIN LADEN.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

Kasz216 on 16 April 2009
Kenology said:
@ Kasz - Alright, lemme see that article on the approval rating if you can still find it. I'm interested in seeing it.

It's in the Pew global attitudes study of 2007.

Short summary here.  The Pew global study is on their site somewhere.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7821449.stm



Kasz216 on 16 April 2009

Beleive me too... I've had a strong dislike of bush longer then even some of the most liberal democrats.

I just believe in giving people their due. A lot of his african polcies were backwords... but the extra funding was just more important.

The US does way more for Africa then any other country. Just ask anyone who is in a refugee camp. Most of their food will have been provided by America.

Which likely means it was carried their by american boats.



Kasz216 on 16 April 2009

Oh. Also i don't get people decrying the pirates for "doing it for the money".

I mean, that country is poor. It's either that or practically starve. These people are more noble then terrorists if you ask me. They're at least doing it to survive.



Kenology on 16 April 2009

@Kasz:

Ok. I'm not sure I'd trust it being as it's coming from the Pew Foundation - and many of the "factoids" (i.e. people naming their kids George Bush) are not referenced and seem like isolated anecdotes. The fact that they'd isolate Darfur from the rest of Sudan would suggest some cherry picking. Were the other country polls regionalized too. I'll do more research and try to see their methodology. Approval ratings for Bush were lower in 2008.

Every leader gets a great state greeting when traveling abroad, it's just custom.

Thanks for the link though.