Of all the kinds of crisis he would be tested with, and it became Pirates.

Nonetheless he seems to have come through with good reports.  Here is how I break it down.

First of all, kudos and praise to the talents and professionalism of the Navy Seals.  The US special Forces (of all branches) are the best in the world and they proved it yet again.  3 shots=3 kills.

It doesn’t get better than that.

I shed no tears for the pirates, not one.  They forfeited their right to sympathy when they turned into kidnapping terrorists.

Obama:  I hear a lot of muttering, from all spheres in all directions.  Great job….but now they will retaliate.  To that I say that we had a choice:  Appease them and embolden them, or kill them and risk retaliation which, if they have any sense, will be tempered with a sense of caution at what OUR retaliation will be.

I admit, I was impressed that he cut the military loose to do what they do best.  A part of me expected him to play the appeasement role.  I was wrong.

Now, to the matter of his refusal to comment early on:  I regard that as an unpresidential moment.  Some are praising it as being strategic, that now the Muslims who are likely unhappy with our deft killing of the pirates cannot use his sound bytes against him.

Perhaps.

But consider this:  How much risk is involved in saying something like  ”we are concerned…we are assessing the situation….we hope and pray for the safe return of the hostage…”  Instead we got  a complete deferral and deflection.

It made him sound like he was unable to respond unscripted, like his brain was loaded with housing answers, not piracy answers.  Even Hillary’s lame response was at least a response.  Not a cop out.

That said, in the end, he handled the crisis well. 

Now some will say that had Bush done this, the denouncements would be flowing about unnecessary violence and an escalation in hostilities.

Perhaps.

As it is, some of those same people will still say that in this case.

I drove behind a car tonight that had a sticker which said “war is never the answer”.

And it occurred to me that the answer to that bit of naivety is “it depends on the question, doesn’t it?”

Sometimes war is the only answer.  Scaling that down to this crisis, sometimes there is only one response that is appropriate:  A measured amount of controlled violence.

For which we have the finest trained military on the planet.

So I will let others rehash the crisis and find criticism.  I will allow others to spin and twist and shout about this and that.

I for my part see this as a win for an embattled military who has had to live under the specter of Abu Gahraib and Gitmo, and yet who rose to the occasion with professionalism and effectiveness.

And I see this as a win for Obama, who either understand more about the military that I expected, or who has hired a staff that apparently does, either of which is encouraging.

I have plenty of room to disagree with him on many levels.  But not today.

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