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have had a tough time explaining the apparent measured and successful approach taken by the Obama team to .

The real point is this, though. Under President Bush, tales of military daring sometimes turned out to be exaggerated, and .

Under President Obama, are we to learn the unvarnished truth even when politics tempts the administration to dress things up? They made a good start with the pirates by refusing to engage in breast-beating before or after. If the generally acknowledged truth of the encounter (that the pirates had to be killed) turns out to be unchallenged, then this event is not just a decent little piece of steel for the Obama spine; it is also a very important readjustment from the days of serial overstatement.

This is not to say that killing them was right or wrong (morally or practically) but just that a war story, calmly told, unadorned and un-politicised, will burnish Mr Obama's image more than a thousand gung-ho tales that turn out to be tall. This is the lesson of the Bush years.

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