re: #294 ggt

I really haven’t been paying attention.

I don’t understand how you can hold 700 people hostage and get away with it.

Because they’re on ships. It’s not like a building, where the rescue teams can get close before making their move. Once they’ve got a ship secured near a pirate town, the odds are they’d spot any rescue in time to kill the hostages or even simply firing an RPG-7 into the ship’s fuel tanks. Either way, the rescuers lose. Moreover, most of those being held hostage aren’t westerners. They’re people from 3rd-world countries whose suffering simply does not command a forceful response from the Powers-That Be.