[Firestormalpha]

Well, conditions in Somalia (pirates country of origin) are pretty crappy. Pretty much everyone is poor, as in the kind of poor that people in America can barely even imagine. Essentially our homeless are better off than many of them. So they turn to piracy for funds.

That said, I don't condone criminal activity for the sake of desperation. But I do have some minimal understanding of why they're doing it.

Now, if we just wanted a quick fix, screw the consequences kind of answer, it's quite simple. When a pirate crew takes a ship, sink it. Not the most productive solution, but it would send quite the message to the pirates.

The tricky thing is to solve Somalia's economic woes, and through that eliminate the perceived need to resort to piracy. But then you have to debate who's responsibility it is to rebuild their economy: the US, the UN, neighbouring countries, fellow Muslim nations in the middle east, Somalia itself?