Did Obama show leadership in the hostage crisis? NO!! Excellence was shown by the Navy and courage by Phillips; Obama was overly minimal and cautious.

Several facts mitigate the claims of Obama supporters that he "showed leadership."

1) We are told that TWO authorizations of lethal force "if the captain's life was IMMINENTLY threatened" were signed by Obama, one on Friday night and another on Saturday morning. Lethal force was used on Sunday. Why were TWO authorizations required? Why so late when the hostage was taken days earlier and the Captain had been fired at earlier? Why such a contingency?

2) Why is there not a standing order for the military to use lethal force to save the lives of Americans? Have the lawyers such sway over American policy as to trump common sense and thousands of years of dealing with latrunculi?Cicero called them “hostis humani generis” ,or "the common enemies of mankind?" Summary execution was traditionally used against pirates, just for acting like pirates. Piracy was regarded as among the most heinous of crimes whether they killed or not.

3) The implication that Obama was directly involved and gave a direct order for the action on Sunday is demonstrably false. When the briefing admiral was asked about the order he answered that it was a standing order ( albeit one that the lawyers evidently TWICE required Obama to sign AFTER the navy failed to act when the pirates fired at Captain Phillips during his escape try.)

4) The requirement that the hostage's life had to be in "imminent danger" is a joke for several reasons:
a) A hostage taken by pirates is automatically in danger.
b) The Captain was already fired upon during his escape attempt.
c) The pirates had threatened the Captain's life. Perhaps they didn't say "cross my heart and hope to die if I don't mean it."
d) If they tied a bomb to the Captain and set it for one hour hence, is that "imminent" enough"?

5) The "imminent danger" REQUIREMENT is phony for what should be an obvious reason. We are told that the snipers saw a pirate point his AK-47 at Captain Phillips and that triggered the action. Bushwa! The best time to take out terrorists/pirates holding a hostage is when a gun is NOT pointed at the hostage. Even shooting a terrorist in the head can cause a reflexive triggering of a gun. It seems clear that the pointing is an ex posto facto justification by the Captain of the Bainbridge who doubtless offered to give the snipers whatever cover they needed against the overly-lawyered Obama Administration.

6) It is hard to understand Obama's annoyed deflection of questions about the situation when having a conference on economic matters and during all the days before Sunday. He could certainly have answered the questions by expressing his concern for the Captain, whether or not he wanted to say anything about justice for pirates. Actually, it's not hard to understand: he was playing it safe, keeping his public cards unplayed so that he could either claim credit or avoid blame, depending on whether the situation turned out well or ill.