Anti-Piracy - The "Wow We Really Look Stupid" Edition

At least the photography is good...

ARABIAN SEA (Feb. 2, 2011) A skiff being towed by a suspected pirate mothership is destroyed by weapons fire from the guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) after Momsen disrupted an attack on a commercial oil tanker in the Arabian Sea. Momsen and the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) came to the aid of the merchant vessel simultaneously in a coordinated rescue and assist effort after receiving a distress call. Momsen and Bunker Hill are deployed supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Hull Maintenance Technician John Parkin/Released)

ARABIAN SEA (Feb. 2, 2011) Skiffs being towed by a suspected pirate mothership are destroyed by weapons fire from the guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) after Momsen disrupted an attack on a commercial oil tanker in the Arabian Sea. Momsen and the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) came to the aid of the merchant vessel simultaneously in a coordinated rescue and assist effort after receiving a distress call. Momsen and Bunker Hill are deployed supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Hull Maintenance Technician John Parkin/Released)

ARABIAN SEA (Feb. 2, 2011) Suspected pirate skiffs burn from weapons fire from the guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) after Momsen disrupted an attack on a commercial oil tanker in the Arabian Sea. Momsen and the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) came to the aid of the merchant vessel simultaneously in a coordinated rescue and assist effort after receiving a distress call. Momsen and Bunker Hill are deployed supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Hull Maintenance Technician John Parkin/Released)

I'm somewhat partial to Captain Dominic DeScisciolo of USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) as he is a Sienna/RPI grad. I'm a homer - sue me.

I don't know anything about Commander Jay D. Wylie of USS Momsen (DDG 92).

I would love to ask both of these guys one question and get the full, uncensored, complete and honest answer.

What happened to the mothership, and why?

Because the Navy is forced to censor the answer to that question, and therefore does not have a good answer to that question - we look stupid.

Maritime Security. The creation and maintenance of security at sea is essential to mitigating threats short of war, including piracy, terrorism, weapons proliferation, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities. Countering these irregular and transnational threats protects our homeland, enhances global stability, and secures freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations. Our maritime forces enforce domestic and international law at sea through established protocols such as the Maritime Operational Threat Response Plan (MOTR). We also join navies and coast guards around the world to police the global commons and suppress common threats.

Quoted from the A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower. This is almost certainly a policy issue that is sourced to the current administration. The credibly of Congress to hold a hearing on piracy and believe they can speak credibly to industry and assure them the government is trying to help doesn't exist with incidents like this. How does the President escape criticism when there is news that a known pirate mothership was only a few thousands yards and under the guns of a US cruiser and US destroyer - 20,000 tons of the most powerful weapons ever to sail the seas - and was allowed to simply sail away?

So why do we stupid? Because the policies of our civilian leaders are stupid when that type of nonsense is permitted, or even tolerated. The rules of engagement of the United States allow us to bomb a house in Pakistan based on intelligence gathered from orbit, but we can't touch a Somali pirate mothership on the high seas a few thousand yards off the starboard bow of two of the most powerful warships on the planet?

CTF-151 is ineffective, and strikes me as an enormous waste of taxpayer money since the rules of engagement prevent the effort from ever being successful. This region matters. Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, testified to the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, "I actually consider al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, with Awlaki as a leader within that organization, probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland." Our nations inability to take credible action at sea is only fueling the black market forces that are currently dominating that region. Our policies are not aligned with the establishment of regional security, so how do we reasonably expect conditions in the region to get better?

In my opinion, the Obama administrations policies in the region around the Arabian Sea is setting up conditions for a future military campaign that will probably include US ground forces. That can and should be prevented. It begins with policies that enable maritime forces to reset security conditions in the region, because as regional security improves it gives the State Department opportunities to leverage other capabilities in the arsenal of the United States to improve conditions on the ground. How can the United States expect the UN and African Union to be effective in a region with so much insecurity when the US refuses to even secure international waters a single square mile around a US Navy warship?

And for the record, if the US Navy is not structured to effectively address the maritime security challenge of the Arabian Gulf region, then the CJCS and CNO needs to answer why the US Navy is insufficiently structured to effectively address maritime security in the region that includes "the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland."

The Obama administration is delusional if they believe this isn't adversely impacting our credibility globally. These policies and restrictions on naval forces make us look stupid, while perpetuating and magnifying the perception of US decline.