Pirates an 'Annoying Distraction'?

Did you know that the pirate attack on a U.S. flagged ship is an "annoying distraction" to President Obama?

So says an analysis piece by Reuters.

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - Ragtag teams of modern-day Blackbeards are posing an annoying distraction for Barack Obama, forcing him to add Somalia to an already long list of foreign policy challenges.

American presidents are told to expect the unexpected, and Obama is seeing that this week. First it was a North Korean test of a ballistic missile last weekend. Now comes a swashbuckling high-seas standoff with armed renegades.

Obama so far has sent U.S. Navy ships to protect an American-flagged freighter that managed to repel a pirate attack but whose captain was taken hostage.

America's recent experience with Somalia has not been good, making caution a key element of U.S. policy in dealing with the country.

The Obama administration was careful not to give the crisis too much prominence, with delicate negotiations under way to try to secure the captain's release.

The article notes that Mr. Obama has declined to say anything about the situation for two days.

A couple of points.

First, Mr. Obama has yet to do anything about the North Korean missile launch. In the fast-paced diplomatic world, his dithering -- especially after issuing tough threats before the launch -- is a loss of face. Not sending a message has sent a message.

Second, the article refers to America's "recent experiences" with Somalia. Not so recent, actually. You have to go back 16 years to just before the Black Hawk Down incident where the Clinton administration decided to bail out of attempts to pacify the terrorist war lords. The Reuters language is a code phrase which translated says, "American progressives do not have the stomach for a tough fight."

If Mr. Obama wants to resolve this pirate crisis, he's going to have to abandon the wimpy progressive playbook. What he needs to do is tell the pirates that the United States is going to blow their homes off the map, with everyone and everything in them, if they do not release Captain Richard Phillips immediately. What we should do is promise only that we will not eradicate them if they comply, but promise them that not only will they be killed if the captain is harmed, but that their families will not survive either.

Some will call me a war monger. Nonsense. This is how you "negotiate" with thugs. You have to know what is important to them. This is how you prevent future acts of piracy, by forcing the pirates to go into a safer line of thievery, one that does not tread on the toes of America or, if you prefer, the Great Satan.

But relax. Mr. Obama will not abandon his nearly non-existent girly diplomacy.

"We don't want to go back there," said presidential historian Thomas Alan Schwartz, a professor at Vanderbilt University. "This may be one of those points where Obama is going to have to cash in some of his international chips and get the U.N. to go in there."

"Somebody needs to go into Somalia and govern the place," he said.

Democratic strategist Doug Schoen, who worked in the Clinton White House, called the crisis "a real test of national resolve" that the Obama White House and opposition Republicans need to work together to deal with.

Or, in short, the Obama people will look to the U.N. to cover their posterior, even though the U.N. couldn't govern its way out of a wet paper bag, or they will let the Republicans come up with a policy with a little backbone that, if it succeeds, they can take credit for and, if it fails, they can blame on the GOP.

Not exactly Profiles in Courage.