I may be one of those "bleeding heart liberals" (since I do believe in equality and the right to food, shelter and medical care), but I can assure you I won't be shedding any tears over the deaths of these five men.
For a while now, Somali pirates have been holding the Sirius Star and its crew hostage. Last Friday, a $3 million ransom was parachuted (see picture) onto the deck of the ship. The ship was released with the crew unharmed, and it left the area.
But the ransom didn't do the pirates any good. While heading back to shore with the ransom, the pirate's small boat capsized and 5 of the 8 pirates drowned. Three of the pirates were able to make it to shore alive, and the body of one dead pirate has washed ashore. The other 4 bodies are still lost at sea.
An uncle of one of the dead pirates blamed the multi-nation naval surveillance of the area for the deaths. He said, "The boat the pirates were traveling in capsized because it was running at high speed because the pirates were afraid of an attack from the warships patrolling around."
It looks like the navies are doing a good job, if they've got the pirates running scared and taking stupid chances. But you can't blame the deaths on them. If these pirates had not seized a ship, kidnapped the crew and extorted a ransom, they would still be alive. Their own criminal behavior is what killed them.
If this happened more often, there'd be a lot less piracy.
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