USN Destroyer Versus Somalis in a small Boat

The longer it takes the United States to dispatch Naval personnel to rescue the captain of a U.S. flagged merchant ship, particularly since it is standing off in clear view of the Somali pirates, the faster our reputation to respond to such insults to our nation will suffer. Above is a photo of a USN destroyer. Either it has orders to do nothing but observe or it has orders to take action. Just how fast would the pirates surrender given the fire power and the other resources of a destroyer?

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Doing nothing is not an option. If a rag-tag bunch of Somali pirates are permitted to "negotiate" with us, it will be open season on every American in any nation on Earth.

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