Nerves of Steel
Last night before delivering the State of the Union address, cameras and the mic pool picked up President Obama telling Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, “great job tonight.”
Late Tuesday night, the news broke on Twitter that President Obama had ordered the rescue of two hostages being held captive by pirates in Somalia:
“Last night U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted, by order of the President of the United States, a successful mission in Somalia to rescue two individuals taken hostage on October 25, 2011,” Panetta said in a statement Wednesday.
Jessica Buchanan, 32, an American aid worker, and her Danish colleague, Poul Thisted, were both rescued. The two employees of a Danish aid group were kidnapped at gunpoint by a suspected Somali criminal gang in northern Somalia in October.
Both of the freed hostages are safe, and arrangements are being made for their return home, Panetta said. Nine suspected members of the group holding them were killed in the operation. No U.S. commandos were injured in the operation.
And here’s the White House statement:
On Monday, I authorized an operation to rescue Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen who was kidnapped and held against her will for three months in Somalia. Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home. As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts.
Jessica Buchanan was selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for her health and well-being. Last night I spoke with Jessica Buchanan’s father and told him that all Americans have Jessica in our thoughts and prayers, and give thanks that she will soon be reunited with her family. The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice. This is yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people.
As our own roadkillrefugee put it: Obama could have exploited the SEAL rescue to great effect during prime time SOTU last night, but declined. Well done.
As with the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama took a huge risk that could have been politically disastrous. Imagine if something had gone wrong? Think Jimmy Carter’s attempted rescue of the 52 hostages in Tehran back in 1980.
Of course the usual suspects are scrambling to find a way to criticize President Obama. As of yet, it is unclear what their angle is. Marcy Wheeler has made some confusing statements on Twitter that had President Obama mentioned the Somali rescue, it would have somehow detracted from his ability to “exploit the Seal Team 6 killing of OBL” (whatever that means.)
I gather that there will be complaints that the rescue was a political calculation taken to coincide with the SOTU, to give the president an approval bump. While that is certainly a cynical view, it’s also nonsense considering President Obama had no way of pre-determining how the rescue mission would play out.
Ultimately, it just feels like the “puritopians” will attempt to create out of whole cloth anti-Obama memes which will, in all likelihood, end up becoming the narrative Republicans use to avoid praising the President while heaping praise on the SEALs.
And, I suspect, we’ll see a post from the Salon blogger that manages to chalk this hostage rescue up to yet another display of the lawlessness of the Obama administration. (And my friend Shoq seems to be of the same mind.)
Sometimes this strained effort to create hysteria where there should be none seems more pathological than political.
Sean Hannity: Yeah, but … but … well, President Bush made it possible with his policies. Obama didn’t do anything. In fact, he didn’t even know about it. Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s like it was with Osama Bin Laden , when SEAL Team 6 got together to examine the special instructions Bush left with them and decided they should launch their own operation all by themselves because they just knew President Obama was going to try to appease the pirates. That’s it. They did it by themselves … with leftover instructions from President Bush.
I love the picture of PBO’s hand cupped to his ear. Does he have super hearing, too? Badass.
Confirming my President is kind of The Shit.
How’s this for a theory of military power: when you use the military to do smart, reasonable things – things that they are trained for, and that are simple and small enough to be within their ability to accomplish – you will have a much higher rate of success than if you send them on stupid, huge, unrealistic missions that require them to do things (like nation building and police duty) that they aren’t actually trained to do.
I know, crazy, right?
Not to mention that whole “well-defined objective” thing…
Glenn Greenbeck hasn’t given the marching orders yet, or the frustrati would be bleating them in unison. Instead there’s some palaver about root causes, forgetting that the hostages were there to fix one of the root causes. I admire them as much as I do the Seals for getting them out.
Terrorists will quake in their boots every time Obama has a speech planned. Last time it was the White House correspondents’ dinner.
President Obama shows that he’s the coldest Mf’er to serve in the White House in over 30 years. Bush would have pissed his pants if he knew a SEAL squad were taking down pirates in the Horn of Africa while he was giving the SOTU or taking OBL while he was addressing Congress.
Let the Emo Progs and the Teabaggers make up crap about how he abused his powers or this was a publicity stunt. Their crap about bin Laden, Libya or Iraq, Wall Street Reform, HCRA hasn’t stuck to him – he’s on another level than his opposition. Right now, the score is still Obama up by 10 and his haters barely getting points on the board.
Like one of my white co-workers said, to deal with the birthers, global financial chaos and everything else with and still come out on top and moving the country slightly to the Left, Obama is Superman.
He’s actually the Martian Manhunter giving orders from Watchtower in space
Unlike Clinton … Obama has genuine respect for the Military. Unlike Bush… Obama understands the nature of the Military. The Military is for killing people and breaking things. It not a diplomatic corps. It is not a police force. It is not a social experiment.
Obama gets it, and deploys the U.S. Military with focused, sober and determined resolve. Can’t ask for more than that from the CIC.
That’s my motherfuckin’ president! Community organizing, multi-tasking BADASS.
I have legit stars in my eyes right now.
The CIC doesn’t need to be a badass, and probably shouldn’t be a badass.
Ideally, you want the CIC to be wise enough to know that the military option kicks off the list of things you don’t really want to do, and moral enough to consider the value of these warriors lives before he/she says something stupid , like “bring em on.”
Obama has been a splendid CIC.
Does Barack Obama have a wallet with “Bad Motherfucker” stamped on it?
He can be a dork at time, then his inner Sam Jackson come out, and just beware the next time he gives a big speech, he seems to need to have his Micheal Corleone moment and taking out enemies of the family.