I am a big fan of Bill O'Reilly, but I am nervous that the expectation he and others (e.g. many commentators on all the news channels) seem to have, that the crews of these ships the pirates are after, should be armed.
I think the reasoning is sound, not to arm these crews.
To allow these ransoms to go on isn't a solution either.
What do the people in the know, think the solution on the seas is, until a solution to get a functioning government on the ground can take hold ?
What are the standards of treatment under
Admitralty Law? Is Deadly Force prohibited?
The mission of the US Navy includes "maintaining freedom of the seas". Let the Navy do their job, and the merchant seaman theirs. If the insurance companies are sufficiently concerned they'll start hiring someone like Blackwater to protect their interest.
My own theory is that some of these "hijackings" are inside jobs. These aren't like the Straits of Malacca where crews were murdered and dumped over the side. Just like kidnapping in South America and Mexico, this is a profitable business and I suspect that last some of these incidents involve organized crime from outside Somalia.
We spend billions of dollars on our navy, let them, and the navies of other nations with an interest in "freedom of the seas", protect shipping.