All The Dead Sailors

In light of recent events, with respect the Obeyme Administration’s decision to drop charges against the terrorist responsible for planning the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the prosecution of whom would have at least offered some modicum of closure, however inadequate, to the families grieving for their losses for nearly nine years, it has become clear that there is one clarion-like, consistent foreign policy message being heralded from the Executive branch, both the White House and the most powerful and influential Communist body in the world, the US Department of State, for the last forty-plus years.  It is perfectly acceptable to attack US Navy war ships and kill US Navy Sailors- expect no adverse consequences or reprisals.

That’s ridiculous OMB!  We’re Americans, and we’d never have that as our official policy.  Well, think again.  We do allow it, we have allowed it, it is our implicit policy, regardless of whether it is so stated, and we can expect more of it unless something changes.  I will briefly recount the four events that, I believe, prove my point.

1967 – USS Liberty

From the USS Liberty Memorial…

It's good to have friends...

On June 8, 1967 while patrolling in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification by air and naval forces of the state of Israel.

Of a crew of 294 officers and men (including three civilians), the ship suffered thirty four (34) killed in action and one hundred seventy four (174) wounded in action. The ship itself, a Forty Million ($40,000,000) Dollar state of the art signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, was so badly damaged that it never sailed on an operational mission again and was sold in 1970 for $101,666.66 as scrap. …read more here…

Thiry-four dead and another 174 wounded.  No reprisals, no justice for the families of the dead and wounded.  Shalom?  Well, the Israelis got away with it, why not the North Koreans?

1968 – USS Pueblo

From the USS Pueblo Incident…

A little paint and she'll be good to go- except I think they still have the ship.

The USS PUEBLO, which was captured by the North Koreans in 1968, was the first U.S. Navy ship to be hi-jacked on the high seas by a foreign military force in over 150 years. To date, the capture has resulted in no reprisals against the North Koreans; no military action was taken at the time, or at any later date. This lack of military response guarantees the Pueblo’s place in history as a watershed event in our national conscience. …read more here…

Again, the ship was unarmed and came under air and surface attack in international waters and was captured!  One dead sailor, several others wounded including the Captain, and the entire crew held in captivity for 11 months!  Please, read of their ordeal at the link above.  I think the North Koreans still have the ship!

One attack with no reprisals can be considered an anomaly, two is a trend, three represents a de-facto policy.

1987 – USS Stark

Although I don’t make a habit of sourcing form them, the summary from wikipedia is pretty complete…

No big deal here, right?

USS Stark was deployed to the Middle East Force in 1984 and 1987. Captain Glenn R. Brindel was the commanding officer during the 1987 deployment. The ship was struck on May 17, 1987, by two Exocet antiship missiles fired from an Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter during the Iran–Iraq War. The fighter had taken off from Shaibah at 20:00 and had flown south into the Persian Gulf. The fighter fired the first Exocet missile from a range of 22.5 nautical miles, and the second from 15.5 nautical miles, at about the time the fighter was given a routine radio warning by the Stark.[1] The frigate did not detect the missiles with radar and warning was given by the lookout only moments before the missiles struck.[2] The first penetrated the port-side hull; it failed to detonate, but spewed flaming rocket fuel in its path. The second entered at almost the same point, and left a 3-by-4-meter gash—then exploded in crew quarters. Thirty-seven sailors were killed and twenty-one were injured.[2]  Read more here…

Thirty-seven dead, twenty-one injured.  This was on Reagan’s watch and I remember it well.  I had just gotten out of the rack and was getting ready to start my shift(nights) when the ship, entirely unexpectedly, went to General Quarters.  I was on the USS Kitty Hawk and we had just transited the Suez Canal the day before the incident.  We had been on station in the Indian Ocean for the last 106 days, supporting the tanker reflagging operation and had just been relieved a week or so before.  The ship was headed to Norfolk, and eventually Philadelphia for refit, which is why we were in the Mediterranean.

When the news came down that the Stark had been attacked, the assumption aboard our ship was that we would retaliate in the next few hours.  Of course, that’s not the way it worked out, and we stood down from GQ.  The disappointment amongst our crew was palpable – it’s a bit of a morale killer, when you realize that you can be used as a target and are not allowed to respond in kind.

So, if three attacks without retribution is a defacto policy, four attacks can only be construed as an invitation.

2000 – The USS Cole

From the The Cargo Letter…

Need I say more?

On December 12, USS Cole (DDG-67), once a powerful symbol of U.S. military might, limped home aboard the Norwegian transport ship M/V Blue Marlin for repairs to a gaping hole left by a bomb attack in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors. The destroyer, unable to sail under its own steam, was carried into a cold & choppy Pascagoula Bay by the heavy-lift vessel Blue Marlin after a 6 week voyage from Yemen.

Quite sadly, more sea gulls than people turned out to greet the Cole in a welcome that was purposely low-key, officials said. Several dozen onlookers, some waving U.S. flags, watched from a nearby point while local and Navy officials gathered at the dock. They saw a gray ship, cradled above the water by the Blue Marlin, with gray tarp covering the 40-by-40-foot hole ripped in its side. Several Navy vessels sailed nearby while helicopters and sea gulls whirled overhead.  read more here…

Seventeen dead sailors and another twenty-nine wounded-great.  And, what’s the official response?  We have to drop the charges.  Um, excuse me Mr. Obeyme, I’ve got a question… WHAT??? This is just unconscionable.  But, of course, it is consistent with the official policy of the United States Government, which is, apparently, to not punish those who take the lives of US Navy personnel (including by the way the 200+ U.S. Marines killed in Beirut).

This sends a clear message to the enemies of America, and believe me, they are legion.  If you need to make a statement or send a message, blast one of our ships out of the water.  No big deal.

I believe the Israelis didn’t want us monitoring their communications with respect to their activities in the Sinai, in their conflict with the Egyptians.  The North Koreans clearly got their idea from the Israelis.  Saddam may well have been testing our responsiveness to military aggression in preparation for his invasion of Kuwait.  The Cole was an easy target and, information was likely provided on it’s schedule to the terrorists by Yemeni government officials.

The bottom line is this, since the days of the Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, our Navy has been used as a means of projecting force and communicating a message:  Our interests lie everywhere and we can and will defend them, so watch your step.  The desired reaction to the presence of a U.S. Navy warship approaching  bad people doing bad things should be, “Let’s get the hell out of here Habib, before we get blowed up!’.  Unfortunately, due to our official policy of allowing these attacks to go unanswered, the reaction now among these same folks, upon the arrival of a U.S. Navy ship is now more like, “You get the dynamite and I’ll get the row boat – we’ll be partying with Allah tonight!”.

Seriously, if you’re a religious person, say a prayer for these heroes -that their families gain some solace and can move on with their lives, because it’s evident that the Nation that they took an oath to serve has no intention of standing up for them, their families, or their memories.  If you are not the praying type, remind your Representatives and Senators of this dearth of Justice that our Service Members and their families are awarded for their sacrifices.

There’s more concern in Washington D.C. for the rights of illegal (non-uniformed) battlefield combatants than there is for the families of the victims of the USS Cole attack, not to mention the other incidents.  There was a time in this country that we would have gone to war over such an attack.  That was the case with the USS Maine when, in Havana harbor, an explosion on board was blamed on the Spanish.  The battle cry was ‘Remember The Maine’ was heard throughout the Spanish-American war.  I’m not saying that this is the appropriate response to these attacks- a good number of historians believe that the Maine suffered a boiler explosion, and that the Spanish had nothing to do with it.  I don’t know- but what comes out of the incident is that an attack on a warship was considered out and out act of war, and was not tolerated.  

Seems like we’ve gotten off track a just a tad, doesn’t it?  This is going to happen again.

-OMB