The ones that should be shot are the ones in the Caribbean who rent a boat to tourists and then make them “disappear.”

At sea, miles off shore, the difference between such “non-fatal means” and openly lethal means are not very clear-cut. According to some sources quite a few of the pirates can’t swim and those that can aren’t up to holding out very long, much less actually swimming to shore.

Using fire hoses or accelerating and using the ships wake to capsize the small boats can lead to some or all of the occupants drowning.

That said I should say them drowning doesn’t bother me. Simply shooting them wouldn’t bother me much either. Pirates violate the written, and unwritten, law that says outside of an actual shooting war, that sailors look after and actively seek to rescue and protect other sailors.

Pirates operate outside that understanding and deserve all the pain and death that can be heaped upon them. They cannot take up arms against their fellow sailors as part of a commercial enterprise one moment and then turn around an expect consideration as innocent travelers on the waters the next.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. With the sharks taking up any slack in the middle.

IMO a simple seven or eight man fire team on each vessel using small arms and grenades could eliminate any risk of piracy. Commercial vessels are virtually steel castles, and good firing platforms, compared to the small launches the pirates are on. A single machine gun could hold off multiple boats indefinitely. Equip the each team with 2- medium machine guns, 6- rifles, 4- pistols, a dozen grenades, suitable binoculars and communications. Six watches in 24 hours with two men per watch and two in command. Standard four hours on, eight off.

For less than what they pay in one ransom they could run many teams for a long time. When the effective herd immunity reaches a critical point, perhaps 70 to 80%, piracy stops being a paying proposition.

I suspect that what he shipping companies are paying in increased insurance premiums would cover a team on every ship. Most commercial carriers have suitable passenger accommodations already and there are a good number of soldiers who would do the job cheap given that it is decent accommodations, free transport and a chance to catch up on their reading and work on their tans. The opportunity to thump a few pirates would be all gravy for a lot of those guys.

I know the US navy would probably just have sent them of to rot in one of your secret prisons, or let them be killed, but alas, some nations are bound by the rule of law.

Actually, they are going to try the one remaining pirate who survived this ordeal – Either in the US, in DC or New York, or in Kenya, as Kenya has been designated the state to prosecute pirates and have done so in the past.

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30190113/ :

Washington federal courts normally handle cases involving crimes committed against U.S. citizens abroad. But the FBI office in New York takes the lead when crimes are committed against U.S. citizens in Africa.
Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life sentences under U.S. law and this is shaping up as the first U.S. piracy case in recent memory.
A top U.S. Navy commander says prosecutors are also considering taking the pirate to Kenya, where there’s an agreement to try captured pirates

When things start escalating, it’s wise to ask who has more room for escalation. I think that certain players have been getting the wrong impression with the “AK-47s for us and firehoses for them” tradition.

The Danish navy has had a presence for some time, and they have arrested multiple pirate crews. The problem has been where and how to prosecute them. One batch of pirates were released,because the legal situation was such that they could not be tried in Denmark, and releasing them to the authorities would be a death sentence, which off course was not an option.

I know the US navy would probably just have sent them of to rot in one of your secret prisons, or let them be killed, but alas, some nations are bound by the rule of law.

I apologise. I forgot this posting software requires use of “s in order to write the code.

There has also been humanitarian aid rendered in the area.

On April 6, the HMCS Winnipeg brought food and water to a 25-foot boat with 51 Somali refugees, including women and children, en route to Yemen.

â??We made sure the boat was seaworthy, that they all wanted to be there, that it wasnâ??t a human-smuggling situation, and let the Yemen Coast Guard know they were coming,â? Baines said, adding the shipâ??s crew has a good relationship with the Yemeni patrols.

Do not forget in addition to the French (three recent missions in response to held ships), the Indian Navy and its response to the pirates in December 2008 where they captured 23 pirates. There is a lot of activity going on with the international task force that isn’t necessarily reported in the mainstream media.

I’m not trying to be jingoistic, and truth be told I really hadn’t thought much about other countries’ possible response. But it still seems foolish of the Somali pirates to go after people they know will fight back.

Ship sails by, pirates attack and attempt to board only to find out that the cargo includes a platoon of marines.

Trojan tankers.