Barack Obama's Moment

Here is Obama's chance to prove to the world he really is a President of the United States.

Somali pirates hijack ship; 20 Americans aboard

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

[snip]

"It's a very significant foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "Their citizens are in the hands of criminals and people are waiting to see what happens."

No kidding. Please, please, dear God in heaven, let us not hear talk of "negotiations" or bringing it to the United Nations.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds reports the crew has retaken the ship. Bravo to them but we are going to see this again, often, until thugs on the high seas decide it isn't worth the risk.

UPDATE 2: The crew has the ship but the pirates have the captain.