The biggest difficulty in dealing justice to the pirates is that the coast of Somalia is as long as the coast of the USA from Florida to Maine. It is a huge area. Add to that the fact that Somalia's government is powerless -- Somalia is really run by organized crime. Add to that, Somalia sits at a major point of travel for ships coming and going from the middle east, where we get way too much of the oil we are addicted to.
If most of the world's military were not bogged down in Iraq, we could probably deal more forcefully with these pirates. But even so, can you imagine trying to patrol a coast as large a the coast of the USA?
I'm all for putting soldiers with advanced weapons on these ships, too. But, that raises the cost on insuring these ships. And, God forbid we cut into the profits of shipping companies and insurance companies in the name of a bunch of nobodies who man these ships.
For the most part, piracy is treated by the shipping companies and their insurers as part of the cost of doing business. If a private enterprise wants to pay a ransom, then what can the various governments do?
Let's also not forget that the men who work for the pirates have nothing else to do. They can starve while looking for legitimate work, or work for the pirates and eat -- and feed their families. So, killing a boat load of pirates is not going to deter a man who has a choice between certain death doing the right thing, or possible death as a pirate.
Stopping piracy on the Somali coast will take a lot more than some symbolic destruction of a dozen pirates on one lifeboat.
CD