More Optimism: SEALs, Pirates and Truth

We’ll take sources of optimism any place we can find them (Brushfires’ last essay found some; as did another earlier Brushfires essay). The end of the standoff with the now deceased Somali ‘pirates’ is one such source, though not in the way that the Pravda media will spin it. And here’s one more uncommon view we’ll take: we hope the Somalis are determined to ramp up their ‘piracy’—they’ll bring even more clarity to who Obama is, or they will transform Obama’s worldview in a way that is helpful to the cause of freedom. Perhaps this is truth at work.

The reason for optimism is that events happened too fast for the left wing ideologues of the Obama administration to figure out how to plausibly blame America for this. Phillips’ ship was reportedly carrying humanitarian supplies, so the blame Big-Oil-for-shipping option wasn’t available (even the condemn-all-shipping-to-stave-off-global-warming option didn’t really work). And so long as the Pravda media supplied the consistent cover of stateless piracy—as opposed to Islamist terrorism—there was no immediate rationale for the administration to step in and block the SEALs from doing their work.

The truth, of course, is that while the twenty and thirty-something Pravda reporters visualize Johnny Depp as they write their pirate stories, the fact is that Somali pirates are militant Islamists carrying out their part in their glorious assault against Western civilization. The Pravda reporters believe they are successfully obscuring this fact from most Americans and other westerners (they aren’t), but the one group who knows full well that these are not ‘rogue pirates’ are the Islamists themselves. And what they also know, again, is the targeted firepower and skill of the American military which, to their surprise, is not yet hamstrung by the Muslim-sympathizer-in-chief.

Just imagine if these were Iranian proxies (which, for all we know, they may have been). The ‘pirate’ label would have been even more lame than it was, and Obama would have almost certainly called for ‘dialogue’ and discussion and negotiation. He would have apologized for any past actions taken by the Bush administration; explained that he understands why they hate us; and struck a deal that would be known as ransom and capitulation in a non-Orwellian world. The SEALs would have been rendered irrelevant and the military itself would be made to look like an expensive artifact no longer necessary in the brave new world where Obama solves everything with his brilliance. The war against radical Islam would have suffered a dangerous and humiliating setback, and the race would be on among Islamist groups to raise the price in the next terrorist attack or hijacking.

Instead, we have three dead Muslim terrorists, and both the Obama administration and the Islamists find themselves in a place they didn’t expect to be. We’re immensely grateful for what the SEAL sharpshooters were able to do, but make no mistake, the hard left worldview shared by most of the Obama administration is not really happy with this result. Because the hard truth now is that if, as and when the Somali Islamists or other Islamists escalate their efforts to attack commercial shipping or some other aspect of Western civilization, Obama will find it very difficult to explain anything other than a similarly forceful response. Anything less will be transparently weak and sympathetic to radical Islam at a time when Americans and the world are neither.

As for the Islamists, they are now wondering whether the Obama’s ‘bows’ to Muslim leaders were some kind of a head fake or double-cross. They don’t see recent events as having happened too quickly for Obama to appease them; they have no idea how the ‘pirate’ fiction works in the Pravda media. They just know their cause suffered another public humiliation at the hands of the Great Satan. We wouldn’t be surprised if they react with a ratcheting up of their attacks. We hope if they do so that they will fail and meet a similar fate, but we welcome the ‘clarifying power’ such attacks will provide to America and a broader base of Western civilization.

These attacks are not matters of criminal law enforcement. They are not anecdotal events to be trivialized by some delusional, romanticized view of piracy. They are battles in the broader war to maintain civilization’s bearings. There isn’t a halfway point between civilization and barbarism—a hallowed ‘middle ground’ where all is peace and cooperation and harmony doesn’t exist. Barbarism can only be confronted, defeated, and destroyed. Obama hasn’t shown signs of understanding this truth when it is right in front of him, but the pirate sideshow may have trapped him into facing it whether he likes it or not. As he basks in the adulation that follows the successful use of force against American enemies, Obama might find a little light of truth beginning to reshape his worldview. Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, loves the adulation, but it will dry up in a hurry if the next attack is met with softness and appeasement.

We hope he’ll continue down the path the SEALs have cut for him. But whether he does or doesn’t, we’ll be able to look back at this Somali pirate episode as an unexpected, unintended but extremely valuable ‘clarifier’ for the American president and the American people. So we’re optimistic, again!

Paul Gable

Posted April 13, 2009