The Realm of Reason

"In the vortex of this debate, once the battle lines were sharply drawn, moderate ground everywhere became hostage to the passions of the two sides. Reason itself had become suspect; mutual tolerance was seen as treachery. Vitriol overcame accommodation." - Jay Winik, April 1865

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

President Obama's Good Move

Those faithful followers of my "status updates" on facebook will note that some time ago I suggested some Navy SEALs deal with the pirates off the Somali coast. And, a few days later, they did. I won't claim sole credit for the success of the operation, because some must be shared with the guy who actually had the ability to authorize it: President Obama.

Good move, Mr. President. But be careful to not make it out to be more than it was. It was a small scale crisis. You handled it well, showed an appropriate level of patience and an effort to sort it out by other means. But you didn't wait too long to put an end to all the silliness. And, in three simultaneous muzzle flashes in the dead of night, the world was reminded that - despite strategies sought after by the rest of the world's nations - the United States will not tolerate punks harassing our citizens. Again, good move.

But, again, this was a small scale crisis, and should not be used as a foreign affairs trophy by the administration. Nor an attempt to somehow redeem the Democrat party from consistent troubles they have had (don't spend too much time debating this - I've heard enough democrat pundits concede this point) handling similar crises in past administrations. Let us all accept this episode with the pirates for what it is: a good move in a small scale crisis. And, perhaps, "hope" that this pattern of decision making in the midst of crisis holds true in larger scale events.

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