Oh, yes! Let's nuke the pirates!
Even some of the Philippine blogs echo that sentiment.

The presumption of the United States as being the only nation on Earth with the predisposition to nuke its neighbors is naivety at worst.

If any nation had the "right" to nuke these pirates, you would think that it would be the Soviet--oops! the Russians. After all, it is their military hardware at risk (bound for the Sudan, at last reports).

Let's punish the Somalian people. After all, they are really the ones at fault here. You don't see them rising up with bombs strapped to their bodies to rid the "bad apples" in their government that continue their privations.

So, let's take out what limited power stations they possess. That'll teach the "bad apples," while leaving the populace who have a hard time trying to eek out a daily existence.

Let's take out the communication towers. Sending the people back into the stone age has no meaning: they are just about there already.

Maybe we should send in the U.S. Marines and force a democracy on the Somali people. But wait! We already tried that, and the celebration that followed our retreat is still heard today.

And, forget about the hostages the pirates have. "They" shouldn't have been there in the first place, right? So, a couple of hundred innocent lives are sacrificed in the operation to radically eliminate the pirates. IF the U.S. government is willing to put $1 trillion dollars into the economy (the bailout), what's another couple million to pay off the families. Money always comforts the loss of loved ones, especially the bread-winners.

Besides, kill one pirate, one or two more will pop up. And, the people will be even more pissed off at the United States for again going it alone to "save" the world of all its problems.

The current course is the correct one. The presence of the all-powerful U.S. Navy is giving the pirates cause to be intelligent. I would not at all be surprised that the U.S. Navy's presence will prevent other nations from a hot-headed, revenge-based act that will kill a lot of people.

Japan and Malaysia have already paid the ransom money. I suspect that the PI has as well, although they are not admitting it. Why? Because in the long run, it has nothing to do with being "chicken." The ransom money is a drop in the economic bucket in the long run.

The best way to deal with the pirates is a year or more from now, when warships can seek and destroy the pirates when innocent lives are not in harm's danger.

At the same time, there are many reasons why those pirates are operating freely. You have to dig for the stories, but the news media around the world is already indicating that the pirates are one pipeline for redirecting material from the "advertised" consumer to the "real" consumer who could not obtain material from legitimate sources.

To root out this form of terrorism, one has to start digging underground for the underlying causes: what is really supporting pirates. Piracy is like a hydra. You cut off one head, it grows another or more. Cut off its legs: it will eventually regenerate but at a much slower rate. Eliminate the need for the hydra in the first place: a huge reduction in piracy.

The latter proposal may be like pissing up a rope or in the wind: effects may be immediately seen to some degree, but in the long-term it will be akin to the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and other programs the world has engaged half-heartedly, because the will to win is absent.