As they say in the military: Bravo Zulu to the Special Operations Forces who successfully rescued two Western hostages, an American woman and a Danish man, in Somalia–and to the commander-in-chief who ordered the operation.
The mission, with the Navy’s SEAL Team Six in the lead, displayed the professionalism and daring we have to come expect of our elite forces. But there was nothing routine about a rescue mission deep in “denied territory,” which is what Somalia is: a haven for pirates and Islamist terrorists. This was a major intelligence coup, to locate the camp where they were held, and a triumph of the military art to secure the two hostages unharmed in the midst of a firefight in which nine pirates were killed but all the members of the assault force survived.
President Obama authorized this mission knowing that much could go wrong–this is not as low-risk as a drone strike. It could easily have become another “Black Hawk Down,” in which case he would have been subject to withering criticism as President Clinton was about that earlier Special Operations mission in Somalia.
But he accepted the risk and forged ahead, which is what we expect a commander-in-chief to do. I have had my differences with President Obama about national security policy, but this, like the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, shows the president at his steely best.
So was Carter at his "steely best" when he authorized a mission to save the hostiages in Iran? Or was Clinton at his "steely best" when he did the raid on Somalia? It can't be just that because Obama was successful he was at his "steely best". There is NOTHING politically difficult about these kinds of operations. Every president, even Jimmy Carter, authorizes them when the military says they can do it. Obama deserves no special credit, unless every other president in the same situation also gets the coveted "steely best" award.
I'm a pretty strict anti-interventionist, but when our citizens are abused, I remember, "This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." If it's militarily feasible, that should be our stance.
Expect the Huffington Post Left to scream that's it's an illegal war crime and the zionist owned and operated media purposefully ignored the resulting murders of dozens if not hundreds of innocent Somali 'pirates' I mean activists. To be followed by Tom Friedman blaming it on the Jews.