The bottom line is that no matter how good the communications are, POTUS should not stick himself into what is a situation well within the wisdom, training and experience of the folks on the scene.

This POTUS has absolutely no military or law enforcement training or experience. If he made the decision to interfere with the chain-of-command by placing himself in a tactical decision position between the SOCOM team on site, and field commanders, CINCAFRICOM,and CGSOCOM, he made a bad one with far-reaching impact. That is simply showing no respect for the seasoned professionals within the chain of command jumping in the middle of things, acting more cowboy-like than his predecessor.

Having POTUS as commander-in-chief of the armed forces is to insure there is civilian control of the military establishment at the top, so that the military is devoid of legal separatism from the rest of the government and thus usurping the potential for a legal military coup - a problem many other countries without such authority for its civilian leader have learned the hard way can hurt. The intention was never to have a president exercise operational tactical control over forces. Presidents Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, GHW Bush and GW Bush, once the decision was made to seek a military solution to their "problems," knew better than stick their inexperienced noses into actual operations, as that only gets people killed.

So, all the current POTUS showed was the same stupidity and arrogance demonstrated by Pres. Clinton - another crisis amateur with no military of law enforcement training or experience - when he personally decided which military units and forces were to go and operate in Somalia.

When will these guys ever learn that playing "soldier" or "cop (like in a cops and robbers game) when the ammunition is real and lives are actually at stake is very bad and risky business. That's why we recruit, train, pay, train, deploy, train, deploy and train people for 10-20-30 years in the military sciences and law enforcement - so they will know what to do in these situations. Believe it or not, just getting elected to anything is no substitute for that knowledge and experience.