Obama's Somali Pirate Hostage Crisis is an 'Annoying Distraction'

The Somali pirate situation in which the pirates took and then lost an American cargo ship and then took her captain as a hostage is being described as an "annoying distraction" for President Barack Obama.

One wonders how Captain Richard Phillips, now being held at gunpoint in a life boat by Somali pirates in the middle of the Gulf of Aden, would characterize the situation. To be sure, the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge in on the scene and a P3 Orion aircraft is monitoring the situation. An FBI hostage negotiation team is providing advice to the US Navy on ways to obtain the release of Captain Phillips without resorting to armed force.

Nevertheless, while the White House is described as "working around the clock" on what has turned out to be a hostage crisis, President Obama appears to be unconcerned. At a meeting with homeowners in the White House Roosevelt Room, Barack Obama was asked what he thought of the Somali pirate situation and the plight of Captain Phillips. Obama responded, "Guys, we're talking about housing right now."

That response was hardly on the level of "Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead."

The sad fact of the matter is that the Somali pirate situation, now elevated to a crisis thanks to the hostage taking of Captain Phillips, is just a distraction to President Obama, who would much rather be busying himself remaking American society than in dealing with foreign problems. The problem is that these sorts of things have to be dealt with, whether one likes it or not.

Foreign crisis have the power to destroy an administration as thoroughly as if by an assassin. The Iranian hostage crisis revealed the fecklessness of President Jimmy Carter and helped to contribute to Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1980. The last crisis in Somalia, the Black Hawk Down episode, was like a shovel to the back of the head of the young Clinton administration and helped to fuel the Gingrich Revolution just a year later.

President George W. Bush got both sides of a foreign crisis. Bush's popularity soared in the initial days after 9/11 when American forces invaded Afghanistan to wreck vengeance and to root out the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But Bush's ratings plummeted just as fast as the Iraq War ground on.

President Obama must be thinking of all of that historical precedence as he prays that the Somali pirate hostage crisis resolves itself quietly.

The irony is that the crew of the Maersk Alabama, while they will be hailed as heroes from sea to shining sea, helped to hand Barack Obama the "annoying distraction." If the Maersk Alabama had been towed to a Somali pirate base, the matter would likely been resolved quietly with the ship's owners paying the ransom. Now, though, Barack Obama has to do something about it.

As Hillary Clinton once said, there would be days like this.

Sources: Somali Pirates Seize American Ship on the High Seas, Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, April 8th, 2009

Pirates pose annoying distraction for Obama, Steve Holland, Reuters, April 9th, 2009

FBI assisting in efforts to rescue US ship captain, Pauline Jelinek and Matt Apuzzo, AP, April 9th, 2009

Obama On Pirates: Declines To Answer Question, Huffington Post, April 9th, 2009