Tough stands, ringing shots

On a memorable Easter Sunday, America’s 44th president shed an image he had carefully cultivated over the course of almost two years of campaigning for the job and in his first three months in office, as one disinclined to move past diplomacy’s muddle into the realm of swift action. American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips is free as a result, with a pinch of luck along with the bravery and skill of Navy Seals and a rare but vivid glimpse of steely resolve from Barack Obama to thank for it. Let’s hope in the case of the latter a pattern emerges.

For too long now, Somali pirates have terrorized the waters off the Horn of Africa. Sunday’s daring rescue, during which American snipers killed three of the marauders as one aimed an AK-47 at Phillips’ back, issued a succinct declaration from the United States that none could mistake: Enough. Obama gave a standing order Friday authorizing the military to take “decisive action” if commanders feared Phillips to be in “imminent danger,” Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said. Freeing the military freed Phillips.

The situation remains delicate. More than 200 mariners from countries around the globe are still being held captive at sea. Somali thugs have vowed retaliation. “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill [the hostages],” one of the brigands, Jamac Habeb, told The Associated Press. “[U.S. forces have] become our No. 1 enemy.”

To this, Obama responded with an appropriate sniff. “I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region,” he said Monday. “We have to continue to be prepared to confront [attacks] when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.”

Surely there were cheers among the ranks of Army Rangers and Delta Force fighters. For those forces, a sting endures from a deadly clash with Somali rebels in 1993, the subject of the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.” Armed civilians and militiamen killed 19 Americans during an attempt to capture a Somali warlord. President Bill Clinton answered with a whimper, withdrawing American troops a short time later from a place where they never should have been.

Like those vicious Somali fighters in Mogadishu, the barbaric band roaming shipping lanes off Somalia’s coast will not succumb merely to tersely worded statements snapped off at news conferences. Obama, who frequently has cited the need for a gentile brand of diplomacy elsewhere, demonstrated Sunday that he will back words with might. “This could be a real discourager of people for which there have been relatively few penalties when they’re engaged in this activity,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whiteman said.

To augment the deterrent he already has provided, Obama should see to it a pirate captured in the rescue of Phillips is tried under U.S. law. That move is being considered by the Justice Department, though it’s complicated by the fact that it’s believed to be the first time in modern history that Americans have taken into custody a pirate who attacked a U.S. citizen.

All of this – and especially the use of force – carries risk that has been obfuscated by Sunday’s happy ending. Detractors would have risen had the rescue bid taken a turn for the worse, as another one did in a separate case Friday when pirates killed a French hostage as commandos stormed a sailboat. A similar outcome would not have rendered wrong Obama’s decision to stand firm against lawless hostility.

Having been buffeted by criticism after softening to jelly terms used to describe America’s foray in Afghanistan and a trip to Europe that netted a handful of nothing, Obama showed Sunday his recognition of a world of extraordinary dangers and his capacity to display mettle backed by U.S. muscle.

Far more important to American security abroad than the symbolism of his rise, this is the shining moment of Obama’s young presidency. We hope and trust it will be defining rather than passing. The good of his country depends on it.