Pirates of the Not-Caribbean

I'm sure most if not all of you have been reading about the pirates off the coast of Somalia, taking ships and crews hostage for money...

It's amazing, really. For the first time in a couple of hundred years at least, pirates are systematically working an area of the world's waters. Oh, there have been pirates recently in other places, like Indonesia, but the Somali pirates are much, much more systematically into it and better equipped.

So now there's this American, Captain Richard Phillips, who's being held hostage under threat of death and who actually tried to escape by jumping overboard after all his crew were released. But the pirates caught him and dragged him back. What a guy! Let's hope he comes safely home. Send in some Navy SEALS to sneak aboard the little lifeboat thingy where they're holding him and slit the pirates' throats.

But here's what I'm wondering: since this area is known to be so dangerous, (a) why are there no warship convoys to escort merchant ships, and (b) why don't the world's navies just blow these guys out of the water? They're PIRATES. They've put themselves beyond the pale of the protection of law. Give 'em a warning (or not), then explode them out of existence.

I'm only for pirates when they're Captain Jack Sparrow. This sort of thing must be stopped. Come on, run out the long nines and knock holes in them until they sink!