Out My Window

It seems the media is choosing up sides on the Pirate vs. USA issue. Some are defending the lawless pirates as defenders of their improvised nation. Other services are praising the work of the US Navy in killing three pirates that held an American at gun point. Demanding $2,000,000 for his release or he would be killed.

You know, we are thankful for the back story on the pirates but no matter how romantic the notion, they are still just lawless thugs.
Just like drug lords, these pirates are influential in their tiny country because they have money. That's all. They pay off officials for protection and spread some of those millions around to act like a modern day Robin Hood. When everyone else is poor, having a couple of million dollars buys a whole lot of loyalty. I assume this is why the AP is making sure they put these murders in good light. Seems the AP has connections so they can talk directly to the pirates and it seems that in return for good PR, the pirates give them inside information.

Granted, the wire service only collects the news and how it is passed on to us is up to the various outlets like your corner newspaper but the information is out there to make this look like the poor little country has been taken advantage of by the whole world and has no other recourse but to "tax" countries for the use of their waters. They make it sound as if they are heroes bringing money back to their country.

With that in mind, the pirates have now declared that they would murder Americans and French they capture instead of holding them for ransom.
This feels to me like a country declaring war on us. Shouldn't this be enough to merit military action against the country?

Do we continue to let them accumulate millions of dollars to finance larger and larger operations? Why not just give the government that money for aid?
To me, this is a whole lot more cut and dried than sending troops to Afghanistan because they protected a terrorist.