I’ve been wondering where these news stories were. Rag-tag groups of villagers waiting in glorified rowboats to ambush transport ships were a little bit bizarre at first, but understandable since most cargo ships are unnarmed both in weaponry and crew.
But, eventually, the pirates broke the cardinal rule of beiligerent third-world activity:
Keep is beneath the threshold of military action.
When people started dying and countries starting losing more money than they were willing to lose, military action got underway. The pirates should have laid low at this point and made it not worthwhile for the world’s navies to squander millions of dollars and mass amounts of power for the occasional pirate attack. Instead, the attacks increased and they moved further out to sea.
The last couple of weeks the news stories have started showing up. US battle ships and now Dutch combat ships as well as other countries are prowling through the water. With each attack they make the determination that third-world antagonists never seem to understand is being made without their input, whether or not to kill them all before they even know they are under attack, or to show restraint and be humanitarian about the whole thing. Instead, they seem to think that they have the upper hand, that the world’s militaries are powerless and impotent, not kept on a tightly held leash.
Now, the pirates have a huge problem. They are under attack and in the worst way possible. Thanks to the location, there are no “innocent” casulaties, and thanks to their worthless firepower, there are no military casualties either. And that, is exactly how first world country citizens like their military actions.
Since everyone (except the pirates) is happy, there is no question of whether the population has the will. The population is happy, enthusiastic even. They wonder where the heck the navy has been the whole time.
The pirates are finished. They just don’t know it yet.