As I understand it, these ships are part of a flotilla that is in the region specifically to cope with piracy issues. And they’ve been there for months. They should have been provided with all kinds of personnel and specialized equipment to facilitate boardings, personal combat and hostage rescue. It’s not the case that a navy ship just happened to be tootling by and responded because chance brought them to the neighborhood.
Now that’s funny! Not only kill them, but humiliate them by stuffing roosters in their mouths! Not sure of the symbolism, but the image is amusing. 
No not really. Pirates are the Common Enemy of Mankind, legally there is no difference if their crime is in international waters or in New York Harbor. International law allows and requires all navies to suppress piracy.
So the US Navy is simply obligated to capture and try these guys (if we take them alive).
Better they should die. In the past these measures suppressed piracy quite well and it is not obvious why these techniques would not fulfill our obligations equally well now.
If you haven’t already read it, you’ll probably enjoy reading about the monkeysphere / Dunbar’s number.
Except that there have been cases like this continually and nobody in America gave a shit until an American flagged vessel was the victim (which is not even American owned).
And except that the USA denies universal jurisdiction for Americans who have tortured and rather than try them it protects them. And torture is a much more heinous crime then a hijacking which so far has resulted in no bodily harm to anybody.
In this case at least the pirates do not harm people. Americans are worse in their thirst for blood. So, in summary, all this is pure crap intended to rationalize America’s thirst for foreign blood when they dare challenge America.
I was referring to this specific portion of your post:
I don’t know about your priorities, but IMHO, rescuing the hostage might be a little more important than killing the pirates.
CNN reporting that the standoff is over , captain safe and three pirates are visiting davey jones locker.
Declan
CNN is reporting the hostage has been freed. In the operation three pirates were killed and one was captured.
Arrr…
[Blam! Bang!]
Arrrrrrrrrrrgggghhh!!!
I was wondering why **xtime **in the GD thread on this had the pirates saying the less used arrgh and not arrr! 
Well I guess those pirates won’t be using their share of the ransom to buy a Toyota Yarrrrrrrrrrrris.
Well. It seems as though there *were *SEALS on board.
From CNN:
Oops. “Ok I’ll tell you what, you can have him and I’ll just be going.”
Well, thank goodness for operational success. Filed under occupational risks of piracy (and you don’t even get insurance if you get hurt on the job!). And really folks, one of the things that’s supposed to characterized the “civilized” IS to care about not killing the very people we’re supposed to be saving. *“Kill all the (pirates/terrorists) and just hope any hostages survive” *should be reserved for some extreme imminent danger situation.
[hijack ]
We may want to think to stop trying to do just that, and to let the the artificial “nation” of Somalia as we think of it pass, so that Somaliland, Puntland, a more manageable “rump state” of Somalia, etc. have a go at getting their stuff together in a more compact scale.
[/hijack]
For doing exactly the same thing he did yesterday? Do you remember yesterday?
I never said there weren’t. Please go back and read carefully. I stated that it was highly unlikely that they were in position to launch an assault on very short notice.
In this case, it seems obvious that the FBI negotiators talked the pirates into sending a guy over to talk. This allowed the DD to get really close, probably sending a boat over to pick up a pirate. During the negotiations, the SEAL team probably came back to the lifeboat the same way that the negotiator left, letting the pirates think their mate was coming back.
The other alternative was that they swam over, but that’s less likely.
Either way, the fact that an assault was launched only after the change in the tactical situation lends evidence to the idea that it wasn’t possible to have teams of snipers and frogmen ready to pounce at any given time.
I wonder if the captain had already been communicated that he should jump overboard but when he tried that the first time the navy wasn’t ready or could not react for some reason. Then, the following night, the same thing happened, the captain jumped and the pirates were riddled with gunfire. We will never know how the operation was planned or carried out but I bet they somehow communicated with the captain and he was part of the plan. I am very happy he was not harmed.
At any rate, the rescue was done effectively and I have no objection to such an operation. I get no joy from the deaths of the pirates though. They gambled and they lost. For the same reason I get no joy from the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq who I believe are also doing something they should not be doing. They gamble and they lose and I am not sorry that people doing bad things lose but I get no joy from it either.
I still do not think it would be acceptable to do wholesale punishments against coastal towns.
From Bloomberg:
Ain’t sarcasm a bitch when it bites right back at ya! 
I was going to say something but…never mind.
According to news reports, the Bainbridge had orders from the President to use deadly force if Captain Phillips’s life was in danger. One of the snipers saw one of the pirates aiming a rifle at Philips, and so opened fire.
It’s unclear if Philips jumped into the water before or after the snipers opened fire. At any rate, they did a helluva good job.