The Pirates

Okay, so this is not exactly "sports" . . . but it does involve strategy and pirates.

After Navy snipers killed three pirates today who were holding an American ship captain hostage, the New York Times reported on the response from the pirate contingent:

Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan said: "Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," he told The Associated Press. "We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men."

Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told The Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)."

"Now they became our number one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces.

Okay, so at first glance, Abdullahi and Jamac, this seems like the right move: express your anger; make a terroristic threat. However, if you want to continue your lucrative business -- and from what I can tell, you are not in this for the "politics" -- this is a terrible blunder.

The reason that you have been allowed to get away with pirating is that you are seen as "psuedo" bad guys -- most of the time you don't kill anyone, so nations are willing to negotiate with you. If your new policy is kill everyone any time you capture an American crew, guess what the response will be?

They don't call a boat a "destroyer" because it pays ransoms and sits idly by.