I will gladly buy a round of drinks for the next group of Navy SEALs that cross my path.  In case you've been stuck under a rock, SEAL snipers recently advanced the cause of freedom on the high seas by snuffing out the lives of three Somali privates.

What the SEALs demonstrate once again that the United States is still very much engaged in point-and-shoot warfare and it is the guys who carry rifles into battle for the U.S. that are most likely to determine the outcome of the wars that we will most likely face in the near future.
 
There can be no doubt that this event lifted the sagging spirits of our beleaguered nation.  America likes a winner, and it was gratifying to have a positive experience. 

You can be sure that not everyone was happy with this turn of events.  There are a lot of high tech warriors in the American defense establishment that are nervous with the idea that we have been essentially killing our enemies for essentially the same way for the past 233 years.  It  doesn't cost that much to fund a grunt while the budgets for new fights are war ships continue to soar.
 
If you don't appreciate how power shifts in the Pentagon, consider this.  It has been several months since the Air Force or Navy have supported ground troops in Iraq with close air support or naval bombardment.  In Afghanistan, the combat roles for the Air Force and Navy are a little clearer but still second fiddle to the ground warriors.

There is something remarkably antiseptic when a pilot drops a 500-pound bomb from thousands of feet above the enemy.  Killing is an almost abstract activity when it comes to dropping bombs or firing Tomahawk missiles from battleships. That same pilot will have a cold beer and warm shower when they return to their base, but the guy on the ground, including our snipers, will likely continue in harm's way.

Are the Navy SEALs heroes?  You bet they are.  If one of the three snipers had missed, the results could have been lethal  for the prisoner, Captain Richard Phillips.  He would have most certainly been killed within seconds. You can be confident that when setting up for the shots that took place, that this thought of a quick kill was foremost in the minds of our snipers.

Charles Henderson, the dean of Marine Corps snipers commented: "Don't believe 'Saving Private Ryan': Real snipers pray afterward, and perhaps before, the mission. During it, only one thing rests in a sniper's mind and the minds of his team members: Making the shot. No mistakes. One shot, one kill."

A positive aspect of the news is that we have another window on the special operations community.  SEALs, in my opinion, are the best trained troops in the world.  We are only now beginning to learn of the special role that they played in the lead up to the 2002 attack on Iraq.  It is now known that SEALs were in Baghdad for three months planting homing devices that guided American missiles to their targets.  This involved free climbing during the dead of night buildings over 20 stories high.  By the way, the SEALs hid during the day in the sewers of Baghdad.

There are some that are going to downgrade the point-and-shoot dimensions of combat that are likely to stay with us for a long time.  I recall someone once writing that I was only a "mud marine" and not one of the glory boys driving around at 30,000 feet.   You can't please everyone all of the time. But, in any case, I am ready to buy the drinks, SEALs!