OK, time for Executive Grow-A-Set Order No 1. You can call it the Obama Doctrine. Anyone engaging in acts of piracy or terrorism on Americans anywhere in the world or in areas where American forces are lawfully operating can have his coconut drilled at any time, based on the discretion of the commander on scene. No further discussion.

You holding your breath? I’m not.

Yes, Obama allowed U.S. forces to do their job. It would have been shameful if he didn’t. But it involved no strategizing or anything beyond a yes or no by Obama, and frankly didn’t require that. It means nothing more than a happy day for America and the Phillips family, plus some wailing in a couple of Somali villages. Unless Obama has a plan, and the will to execute it. On that front, to steal a phrase, he has not yet begun to fight.

May I suggest boning up on the back-story?
The Two Piracies of Somalia

May I suggest boning up on the back-story?

BARBARY WARS

The four Barbary States of North Africa - Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli - had plundered seaborne commerce for centuries. Surviving by blackmail, they received great sums of money, ships, and arms yearly from foreign powers in return for allowing the foreigners to trade in African ports and sail unmolested through the Barbary waters. They demanded tribute money, seized ships, and held crews for ransom or sold them into slavery.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/barbary.htm

And the point is what? Are you arguing that because the Barbary Pirates existed two hundred years ago that modern-day Somalians are sort of genetically pre-disposed to piracy?

Merrie, these people have only lived on the coast for twenty-five years. They were moved there from inland in hopes that they could get food from the sea.

Did you know that?