It as the perfect gift for an Easter Sunday afternoon.

No, not news that the Obamas finally had selected a dog.

I refer to the headlines early yesterday afternoon that U.S. Navy SEALs had freed the captain of a U.S. ship who had been held captive by Somali pirates since last Wednesday.

The decision was apparently made after it was learned pirates were pointing a rifle at Capt. Richard Phillips, who had offered himself up as a hostage after the pirates stormed his ship.

Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, in a briefing after the daring night-time rescue, said Phillips was in imminent danger because one of the pirates had placed an AK-47 assault rifle to the back of his head.

Navy SEAL snipers took out three of the pirates; a fourth surrendered.

It was a feel-good moment in the often prickly area of how exactly to deal with pirates, who are increasingly causing problems in that area of the Indian Ocean.

Those problems are likely to get even more touchy now. The assault against the pirates sparked some tough words from other pirates and raised fears for others who are still being held captive.

“From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages),” a 30-year-old pirate told the Associated Press.

We’ll deal with those issues as they come up, and hopefully we will get a little more in the way of international cooperation in attacking the problem.

But for one afternoon, the rescue provided proof that America is now about to stand idly by and watch U.S. citizens – or for that matter any others – be put in harm’s way by a ragtag bunch of swashbucklers who think they can do as they please on the high seas.