There was a touch of derision in the Times article about President Obama's response to the growing threat of international terrorism on the seas. Not exactly derision of the president. But of the entire predicament. "The world's most powerful navy vs. a lifeboat." The fact is that the navy and the lifeboat are also metaphors for the overall struggle of great powers against terror. You do remember that word, don't you?

It is actually good that this easily replicated act came early in Obama's term, lest he and his administration remain infatuated by the proposition that terrorists can be civilized by talk. There are no formulas for disarming the land equivalents of the pirates, those who explode themselves in the midst of innocent crowds in Iraq and Pakistan and other unfortunate countries. Israel used to be one of those countries. But it built a barrier hemming in the would-be bombers behind an unattractive barrier. David Hare has written a screed in the New York Review of Books against what he misleadingly calls "the wall." And his argument is in defense of the aesthetics of Palestinian life against the safety of Jewish lives. Sorry Abdul. You'll be stopped at the fence, which is most of the barrier anyway..

In any case, the president came out fierce and strong. "I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region. And to achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks," the president said. "We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they are arise. And we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes." The three pirates killed by Navy Seal sharpshooters have already had justice done.

But how to hold them accountable? Not certainly in an international tribunal whose composition and legal norms are ever so dubious. Why not try sea-borne terrorists in the countries whose vessels they attack? American justice, so delicately attuned to the rights of even barbarians, might just let some of them free. But American justice is real justice.

In the meantime, Senator Russell Feingold, chairman of the Foreign Relations sub-committee on Africa, blamed the Bush administration, well, for everything and apparently forgot that Bill Clinton withdrew American soldiers from Somalia in mortified disarray. He demanded a "comprehensive strategy" which, the Times' journalists wrote, was "to help Somalia stabilize and fight piracy." Mumbo jumbo for nothing.