Obama's Pirate Failure

We were all very happy to see the Navy SEALS successful rescue of the American Merchant Captain from the Somali Pirates last week, but I was somewhat disturbed by the White House's attempt to credit President Obama with the rescue. They said things along the lines of that Obama had "ordered" the SEALS to take out the pirates, and talked of his "handling" of the situation. The facts, however, do not bear this out.

The fact is that the US Navy has the standing Authority to take any action deemed appropriate by Navy command personnel to quell or suppress piracy wherever and whenever they come across it. While some of the Presidents lawyers drafted a couple of legal documents for the President to sign because they were apparently not familiar with the rules under which the Navy operates, the situation was handled by the Commanding officer of the US Navy ship on the scene and the leader of the SEAL team that took the terrorists/Pirates out.

While some, especially those on the left, want to praise Obama, and lend the distinct impression that he personally went over there and dispatched them, others keep saying that we should give credit where it's due, and imply that there is credit to be given to Obama here. OK, maybe they're right. I'll give the President credit for not screwing up the rescue mission, since he did have the power to do that. There was no need for him to give authority to the Navy personnel, because they already had it, but he could have interfered and didn't, so kudos to him on that account.

That's not his big failure though. The true test for the President did not come until after the rescue mission was completed. This is a test he failed, big time.

You have to understand that the US Navy was originally founded for the express purpose of hunting down and killing pirates, and making them unable to engage in piracy on any level, because Piracy is bad for everybody. It hurts all nations and peoples of the world that in any way rely on Sea Faring commerce, which now, even more than 210 years ago, is pretty much everyone.

What the President should have done is to order the US Navy to put an end to the Somali Pirates once and for all, and make it clear to the world that the US Navy is committed to the safe passage of all peaceful travelers and merchants on all of the worlds oceans. I'm not one to push for the US to be world police, but this is clearly in our best interest, and hey, the rest of the world gets to share in the benefits, that sounds like a really good deal to me.

Of course, it's not too late. Obama could still come out and give the Navy this mission, and claim that they were just giving it some careful thought, or something like that, but really, he should have done it immediately, that would have been some real leadership, and something worthy of a hearty, "Good Job." The Presidents actions to this point have been a dismal failure, we can only hope that he will wake up and do better tomorrow.