Eh... the only problem is that deterrence doesn't just work for the USA. Anything we do to the pirates to deter them from piracy, the pirates are actually MORE willing to do to us, to deter us from resisting. They're not idiots, like the article says, and while we have much better technology on our side, they have our tendency to shift blame onto our fellow citizens working for them.

Before we start hanging pirates from the yardarm again, we had better have plans in place to deal with the lawsuits and possibly even outright attacks from the families of sailors whose skulls the pirates will be hanging from the rigging, first.

I'd argue that drawing the process out will only cause more casualties, to both life and cargo.

So I'd take the simpler approach.

Any of the pirate motherships out there can be blown out of the water without benefit of CNN cameras onboard...

Then, if that wasn't sufficient as a deterrant, mining the ports these ships operate out of (as in, Haiphong Harbor (Vietnam) in 1972) is another option.

Indeed, once deterrence is established, it must be maintained, or else the whole bloody war ends up having to be fought again and again.

That's one thing I won't easily forgive the left wing for: stripping away all our deterrence, on the pretense that "we don't need it any more" and "it gets in the way of understanding the superiority of primitive cultures."

I agree that the pirates are initially more apt to attempt to do these things to us as a retaliation. However, I don't think that should stop us. If every set of pirates that goes up against a ship carrying the US Flag ends up dead or severely wounded, they'll start going after other countries. They may treat those folks a bit more harshly, which is unfortunate - but their country needs to protect their own folks.

Now, to do this properly, I think it takes a few things:

1 - Let the pirates know that we're now on shoot to kill footing. If we see a boat that engages in typical pirate activities and tries to board one of our ships, they will die. Period. Let them know what activities trigger the reaction. Make it very clear all around.

2 - Start putting armed Marine detachments on board our ships. Marines know how to put out large volumes of firepower. If you're in a rickety rowboat carrying an AK and then you come up on a juicy US target and are met with an incredibly accurate and high volume of fire, you'll think twice about doing that again (if you manage to live).

3 - Run patrols in smaller boats up and down the coast. A modern PT boat should have nothing to fear from these pirates. Some Blackhawks floating around will likewise have nothing to fear.

I also don't think any lawsuits will have standing anywhere. We don't recognize that international court thing anyway, which is the only place where they'd be able to attempt anything.