RIJ - and when the pirates look and act like local fishernen or the local fishermen act like priates (gee the legitimate fishermen have AK's on board their vessels) who's village you going to blow away with an Apache?
Oh, now you have a MEU 40 miles off Somalia to support your Apache (well, Cobra actually). Now you've blown away a village by diverting upwards of 20 BILLION in equipment and 3000 sailors and marines to thwack some pirates in a couple boats.
Hammer, meet Nail.
Or, (sadly) get the Interneational Community to agree on a set of rules that everyone can act on
.
But, this being the first time US sailors on a US Flagged vessel were boarded, maybe this is time to reinstitute one of the primary historical missions of the US Navy. Anti-Piracy.
RUMINT on
GCaptain and
EagleSpeak