Let's make it clear: this piracy was an act of war against the United States. There is no time for liberal angst, worrying about the civil rights of the pirates and obsessing over possible collateral damage. We have heard the account that Clinton once had an opportunity to take out Osama bin Laden in a camp with a strategic missile attack, but his advisors fretted over innocent third parties in the vicinity.
There must be zero tolerance. It's almost like we've gone back over 200 years in time to when the young US was paying protection money to ensure safe passage of their vessels. Giving in to pirate extortion demands simply reinforces international criminal behavior.
Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in his book Veil discussed a brutal but effective response when Palestinian terrorist group Hezbollah in 1980's Beirut kidnapped 4 Soviet diplomats and executed one of them. The KGB in turn nabbed the relative of a Hezbollah leader and "castrated him, stuffed his testicles in his mouth, shot him in the head and sent the body back to Hezbollah. The KGB included a message that other members of the Party of God would die in a similar manner if the three Soviets were not released." Hezbollah promptly freed the remaining Soviets.
I cringe at the thought of Obama responding to this crisis with an indictment of the Jefferson Administration leaving him a mess to deal with, pointing out his unique qualifications because he is the son of a neighboring Kenyan, saying to a foreign audience that Americans must acknowledge their responsibility in the circumstances of pirates becoming pirates, and drawing down the size of the Navy in response to the seizure (much like Gates' announcing a cut in missile defense systems right after the North Koreans launched their long-range missile).
It's time to take decisive action against pirates and their home bases.
