While I generally adhere to a policy of ignoring idiot college kids (and their close evolutionary relatives, post-graduate young pseudo-intellectuals with Obama-esque delusions of self-importance), this post caught my eye. Yesterday a child named Ezra Klein, who apparently writes for an online magazine called the American Prospect, had this to say about the U.S. Navy’s rescue of Maersk-Alabama captain Richard Philips from the Somali pirates who had held him hostage since the middle of last week:

DEEP HISTORICAL THOUGHT.

Over the weekend, Navy Seals equipped with high-powered sniper rifles and night-vision scopes shot three pirates dead and rescued an American hostage. After dark. Using only three bullets. From 100 feet away. On a boat. Which raises the obvious question: Can we finally agree that whatever Barack Obama is, he’s not Jimmy Carter?

Here’s a story you might be interested in. Over the weekend, I ordered a pizza from my personal favorite place — Johnny’s NY Style Pizza and Subs — with half pepperoni and half cheese. The driver showed up on time with a piping hot pie, despite tornadoes and driving rain in the area, and the delicious New York-style dinner I consumed as a result, along with a glass of Blanton’s bourbon whiskey, was one of the best I’ve had in some time. Which raises the obvious question: Can we finally agree that, whatever their middle relievers may have done against the Phillies in last Wednesday’s meltdown, the Atlanta Braves are a heckuvalot better baseball team than they were last year?

Based on Vice Admiral Gortney’s briefing, here’s what happened:

1. The Navy was given a specific set of circumstances in which they could take the necessary action.

2. Being tired of being the laughing stock of the world, the on scene commander determined those criteria had been met.

I know how the game is played, and what happened, and believe me, the result today was the result of someone with the brains to adhere to the letter of the law while violating the spirit of the law to do what needed to be done. It happens in the military from time to time, and usually the results are positive enough to preclude punishment.

In other words, today’s success was enabled not by Obama’s good efforts, but by his failure to tie the commander’s hands as tightly as he thought he had.

That pretty much sums up in two points and two paragraphs what Caleb and I took far longer to say.

After four days of floating at sea on a raft shared with four Somali gunmen, Richard Philips took matters into his own hands for a second time. With the small lifeboat in which he was being held captive being towed by the American missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, and Navy Special Warfare (NSWC) snipers on the fantail in position to take their shots at his captors as soon as the command was given, the captive Captain of the M.V. Maersk-Alabama took his second leap in three days into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

This diversion gave the Navy Special Warfare operators all the opening they needed. Snipers immediately took down the three Somali pirates still on board the life raft, SEAL operators hustled down the tow line connecting the two craft to confirm the kills, and a Navy RIB plucked Philips from the water and sped him to safety aboard the Bainbridge, thus ending the four-day-and-counting hostage situation.

*  *  *

Philips’s first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn’t worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country’s Navy possible, Philips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors — and none was taken. The guidance from National Command Authority — the President of the United States, Barack Obama — had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostage’s life was in clear, extreme danger.

The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating raft was fired on by the Somali pirates — and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed, thanks again to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel due to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington, and a mandate from the Commander in Chief’s staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a “peaceful solution” would be acceptable.

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