Yes arming ship crews would cause issues with some ports but those issues could be relative easy to iron out.

Easy? Have you ever tried to take a gun to New York or New Jersey? How about California? That is just in the US. You get jail time for bringing guns into Mexico or Great Britain without prior license. Just like you would if you took one into New York or New Jersey. That is just to name a few of the various national gun control laws you'd run into. Plus, you have to deal with the issue of export if your country of origin controls export of weapons to your destination country.

Once a non-governmental vessel clears into a port, they are subject to that country, state and municipality's laws. Some countries do give consideration to declared guns sealed on board ship but not all. And the kind of guns that would be needed, fully automatic and large caliber are strictly controlled even in countries with the right to bear arms like the US.

In the meantime, it'd be nice if they'd just declare the pirates to be Enemies of Mankind, like the British did back in the days of Empire, and then give orders for them to be sunk on sight. Complement this with following of pirate craft back to their safe harbors, to sink them there.

It won't stop the impetus to piracy, but let's face it - we don't really care about the "root causes" of Somali piracy, and we're not going to be solving them anytime soon. Let's just clear up the bastards to the best of our abilities.

There is a link to report from January stating salaries for crews traversing the Gulf Aden have doubled, ships are convoying or taking the long way around. All supporting Dave's assertion of increased costs for oil and other products from the area.

I believe the US should stay out of it, we wouldn't want to appear arrogant, would we. Europe can man up for this fight. The Indians certainly seem to be willing to put down a pirate or two.

However, what it really does is reduce the comparative advantage of Gulf oil, making Nigeria, Venezuela, Mexico, and other suppliers more competitive.

What is your evidence for this? Mostly these pirates attack container ships, yachts and tugboats.

Even last year when the Saudi Aramco tanker was hijacked, prices were not affected.

Only 4% of the world's oil passes through the Gulf of Aden, so it really isn't a big deal--additionally, there has been a downturn in the number of pirate attacks since Obama has been in office.