A few people hindering free trade routes do not amount to declaring war on the USA.
Yes it does when the vessel flies the American flag ! There weren't that many pirates in the era of sailing ships. England, France and Spain had no problem solving that back in the day. What a manageable war.
This is a very weak analogy. The similarities between the two incidents are only that they are American boats being attacked. In one incident you have an American military boat being attacked by another organized and recognized military power. The other is civilians of another nation attacking civilians from a separate nation. The approach and handling of these situations are going to be completely different.
Hardly a weak analogy, the thought process behind this is that a lightly armed cargo vessel in an unstable area/waters with modern technology anti-ship missile systems, perhaps even outdated anti-ship missile systems could destroy a pirate vessel quite easily ? Similarly, US military aircraft from a carrier would wipe them out just the same. Boo hoo, who gives a f*ck about picking up survivors in that case, they got what they deserved and were after ? Let them drown or the sharks eat them ?
Again, maritime law prevents civilian ships of any kind being armed for obvious reasons. The idea of having civilian cargo ships pulling into foreign ports scars the hell out of the international community. For example, can you imagine a cargo ship filled with armed men under the guise of foreign cargo crew members delivering shipment to a port outside of L.A then eventually taking that port hostage. Lastly, the idea of arming civilian cargo ships with military weapons is asan. I'm not to sure if they really thought that idea out or just thought it would be "cool."
Nobody said anything about L.A., we're talking the coastal area of the middle east. Cargo vessels probably have their routes and regions ? Maritime law in certain regions has had the flexibility for armed cargo vessels, WW II was such a time. That was essentially Germany that was cause to arm cargo vessels. If there aren't that many pirates, this resolution would be short and probably not even any more scarier in that area than the US warships that are already there supporting our war on terror operations ? BTW, I love how maritime law is used as the excuse why something can't be done, rules used to protect the rights of those breaking the rules ?
You can't declare war on a group of people especially one with no organized government. Just like a previous poster said hindering free trade routes is not a capital offense. Hence, why we must attempt to negotiate with them like we would a bank robber holding his hostages captive.
Can't declare war on pirates ? That's exactly what England and other nations did back in the day. It's being done right now. Hindering free trade routes may not be a capital offense in your book. But stop discounting this. They opened fire (that's a declaration of war with the level of armament they have, nobody is accusing them of being brilliantly/intelligent people.), they took hostages and threatened their lives. See the pirates that were shot dead, they were aggressive and holding AK-47's. That's assault with a deadly weapon, that's not a self-defense situation. When you draw a gun, much more shoot it at someone, the intent better be to kill, those weren't warning shots that drove the crew into the engine room to safety.
What you're asking is the U.S Navy to combat an area the size of L.A to Chicago and to New York that's the Gulf of Aden but also the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and a large part of the Indian Ocean; a total of 2½ million square miles.To even accomplish that huge goal the U.S would need a minimum of 200 plus battleships constantly patroling only that part of the world.
Again, with the speeds & ranges of the aircraft on a US carrier, how tough would it really be ? You are talking about battleships, I'm talking about carriers being there long enough to resolve this. What happened to the USS Liberty in that "weak" analogy, a single US plane with anti-ship missiles could sink the pirates vessels and again, who cares about survivors ? BTW, a tomahawk missile has a range of 2500 kilometers, that's over 1500 miles. And with a cargo ship providing data co-ordinates to the missiles sensors, the missile would destroy a pirates vessel every time. How many would we need to destroy ?