BlackFive

Our complete lack of a coherent policy to deal w/ the pirates in Somalia gave us four slaughtered Americans. But at least we were following behind the captured boat so we could go get the bodies once the pirates got sick of negotiating and killed them.

Hijacked by Somali pirates last Friday off Oman, the Quest was being piloted toward the Somali coast - and was being shadowed by a U.S. Navy warship.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that gunshots aboard the yacht were heard, and the warship took action, dispatching forces to board the Quest.

The U.S. forces found the four Americans has been shot by their captors and attempted to deliver lifesaving medical care - but all four ultimately died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

Now that is sad, and there is obviously risk involved with transiting those waters. But why do we allow that risk to be there. It is not a natural thing, it is not a mariner's impossible choice between Scylla & Charibdis. It is a bunch of half-naked clowns in crappy little boats.

Two pretty simple questions, why were we shadowing them? And why don't we unleash our dogs of war against an unquestioned menace? What is the worst that could happen if we simply declared that piracy is no longer acceptable and the old rules apply. As Froggy said... Existing technology cannot measure the level of AWESOME that would be Navy SEALs on a Somali pirate hunt.