I really got a kick out of your list, NCD, so much so that I did a quick surf around of the usual suspects of the left variety to see if any were expressing teh outrage yet and how. I must admit I didn't find much so far (though I also didn't look very hard.) But I did come upon what I interpret as Marcy Wheeler twisting herself in knots trying to figure out what she might be outraged about in this story once she learns more about it. Mostly the post is questioning, questioning, with some prejudice, which to me is fine, though I can always do without the "the Obama administration must be doing something nefarious" approach. The killer for me, though, was her conclusion:

I don’t know the answer to any of this. But the question seems particularly pressing given Obama’s Defense strategy, which foreswears the kind of nation-building that might make this region more stable and allow an alternative economy to flourish.

We rescued one American woman and one other humanitarian aid worker. Other hostages remain, including an American journalist. Did we make piracy less likely in the future?

Correct me if I am wrong, but is this not askin':  I'm not so sure of the value of this police action stuff as regards pirates and terrorists, maybe the Neo-Con vision of nation building rather than police action is the way to go!? Seriously strikingly funny to me--it's like she doesn't realize that in trying to prove the Obama admin is probably always doing something stupid or wrong, she's willing to make Paul Wolfowitz 101 arguments.

I must admit Wheeler is doing a service though, in bringing up the strategic frame here; it made me go look for more on that. (Though I am not going to try to find analogies with strategy on internet piracy, sorry, I just don't think that would be too fruitful or useful, only feed setting up a template where you were looking to prove what you had decided to believe. I believe it's best to start out with the presumption that our government is not so very well-organized or unified.)

This Christian Science Monitor piece is a nice roundup of some analyst opinions on that. It does seem that the same principle is being used as against Al Qaeda--i.e., really chase them far into their retreats and even if they alter their ops, and then chase them some more until they are too debilitated to have much of an effect. That does reasonable to explain this rescue--it's a warning to all who have done or are considering similar that the big nationals can and will continue to chase you into the rogue areas even if you change your tactics (here, sea to land,) so why not just find another, easier way to earn a living? (or in the case of Al Qaeda, another way to fulfill your desire for "jihad.")