I think people need to calm down. Going in there with our trillion dollar Navy with guns blazing is typical, boring John Wayne nonsense that gets people into more trouble than before. The hostage will die if we do that.
First, people have to realize piracy is a law enforcement issue, not a military one. Secondly, the main objective is to retrieve the hostage unharmed. The pirates are on an enclosed lifeboat with no fuel that is low on fresh water and food. So it becomes a waiting and negotiating game and we can sit there indefinitely. The pirates tried to strengthen their hand by joining up with other boats that had hostages. They failed and were cut off by the Navy. So they are sitting ducks out there helplessly. Given that situation, blowing the sh!t out of them is probably the single dumbest thing that we can do and frankly, in my opinion, be a total embarrassment since we would kill our citizen. If the pirates open fire, of course the Navy can return fire if it deems necessary (and doesn't require an "A-OK" from Obama). If the pirates kill our citizen, of course the Navy can open fire.
What is important to point out that these guys are greedy criminals, not terrorists. They are smart enough to realize that harming or killing their prize will not yield the dollars that they covet. They are not interesting in dying. They are not Islamic fascists that are on jihad and resort to slicing off people's heads like psychopaths. It is believed that a portion of their ransom money may go to a Somali terrorist organization (that controls pirate territory) as a form of "protection" money like helpless, legitimate businesses do with the mafia in this country.
I think this will end with us getting our citizen back and these criminals going free without a ransom being paid. Basically a swap; our citizen for their freedom. The Israelis do it all the time. They swap the the release of many Palestinian for the remains of their deceased soldiers killed in action. They also open a can of whoop a$$ too and that doesn't always achieve their objective. But that is a different discussion.
There is over 1,000,000 square miles of pirate waters. Patrolling all of it is impossible and a waste of military resources. Don't forget it took the nearest US vessel one day to travel to the scene. They were 350 miles away. Although it would be nice to blow them to smithereens, it will not deter them from trying again, again and again because the odds are in their favor and the lure of money is insatiable. I firmly believe that these cargo ships should be able to hire private security forces like Blackwater so they have heavily armed, expert military personnel on board that can thwart an attack. I believe this tactic is much better because if every cargo ship had superior protection and fire power, it would make it much, much more difficult for the pirates. The odds are greatly reduced in achieving success compared to no security and the hopes that a Navy vessel is somewhere near them in a 1,000,000 square mile pirate domain; not very likely.
