Give Navy Seals Credit on Somali Pirate Rescue, Not Obama - Peter Roff (usnews.com)

Give Navy Seals Credit on Somali Pirate Rescue, Not Obama - Peter Roff (usnews.com): "I think we are all grateful that Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Line has been rescued after being held for five days by a group of pirates in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa. But I think the praise being heaped on President Obama for his handling of the situation is approaching excessive."
For my money, most of the credit for Phillips rescue goes to the U.S. Navy Seals who carried out the operation, not the White House. Sure, give the White House credit for smooth management of the crisis over five days but, let's face it, piracy on the high seas is a problem we figured out how to handle in the 17th century. And it's not at all clear they learned anything from Phillips's rescue. As the Associated Press wrote Tuesday, "Undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed seven bandits, Somali pirates brazenly hijacked three more ships in the Gulf of Aden."