6 thoughts on “Bravo, U.S. Navy SEALs”

  1. What will go “unremarked” upon is the restraint shown by the commander on the scene — 1) what sort of political pressure was he under — sometimes captains/admirals rise to their rank because they are competent and/or more important, have good political antennae on top of that; 2) what sort of interference was there from Centcom/Pentagon/DoD/POTUS (going up the ladder) sounds like they had a clear kill shot 36 hours ago when the good captain took his dive and swim …. but such are the glories of arm chair QB/commenting from a far off dry, dry distance. am glad this was “resolved” the way it was. and that the French got to signal their intent first. now on to the next 200. Reading Hobbes might be as important as reading Clausewitz … for understanding failed states/anarchy and what results …. to put it another way: 4GW = 5GW = 1GW…. too full of Easter Ham and good cheer to be more than cryptic and pass on my congrats for the safe return of a good guy who put his crew before himself.

  2. Carl, if we did a roundtable on (1) The Anabasis, or (2) The Federalist Papers, or (3) The Prince — would you post?

    I am just thinking out loud at this point. No serious plans yet.

    I particularly like the idea of doing, say, three or four weeks on Xenophon.

  3. A few comments:

    Carl wrote:

    “1) what sort of political pressure was he under ”” sometimes captains/admirals rise to their rank because they are competent and/or more important, have good political antennae on top of that; 2) what sort of interference was there from Centcom/Pentagon/DoD/POTUS”

    The Captain of the USS Boxer and the SEALs are under the jurisdiction of PACOM in terms of chain of command.

    MSM reports that the SEALs were under orders not to shoot unless the captain/hostage was threatened. I am not a Navy blogger, Galrahn at Information Dissemination will probably have the scoop but that unusually restrictive requirement sounds like ROE coming from the EOB or perhaps staffers at PACOM HQ kowtowing to the prejudices of a Left-liberal, anti-military, Congressional leadership. Obama reportedly said “go ahead” twice so the hesitation may have been partly on the uniformed side calculating on how they could CYA when the anti-American mil-haters hold subcommittee hearings 8 months from now when the public has moved on.

    I’m up for a future roundtable on The Prince or The Anabasis and I second Carl posting.

  4. Did not know it was PACOM; thought almost everything from horn of africa to the ME and beyond was centralized under CENTCOM to give command structure more sweeping reach. I stand corrected (gladly) … am also glad that perhaps there is a more aggressive move afoot re: shipping lanes. still wobbly from good easter cheer. will act like a five year old over draft picks ranging from xenephon to machiavelli to hobbes to hamilton and the feds …. did not mean to impugn ROE of cap of USS Boxer but was concerned when read reports that the cap of the ship had taken a dive and perhaps good shots were there for the taking and no one did anything … but you don’t know if you 1) you are not there and aware of the circumstances; 2) have assets in place ; 3) what the ROE are even in so “seemingly simple” an affair … they’re pirates .. shoot the bastards…. easier said than done…. who would have thought keeping shipping lanes clear would be as big a challenge and/or as ongoing a challenge in our day and age …. yes, yes, delightfully naive …. but, then, doesn’t that mean hobbes (or even thucydides?) has somehting to say …

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