[icegreentea]

I think its key to keep in mind a couple view points here, that all try to minimize going to black and white.

a) Consider that in general, treating the cause is more effective than treating the symptom, even if you find that kind of unsavoury. No doubt the pirates have done some bad things that are (and should be!) crimes. But just piling on the warships and spec-ops to interdict/kill all of them isn't exactly the best way to solve it, as it appears to leave one of the root causes of the phenomenon untouched anyways. We can draw parallels to American street gangs. Yes, they do totally crappy stuff. But now that we bothered studying them, we can see part of the reason of their existence is that they fill a hole in the lives of many young people in certain situations. This by no ways truly justifies theirs actions, but helps explains them, and ultimately if we want to resolve the problem in a real way (beyond just killing them all), we need to listen.

b) Worthy causes can be linked to unworthy actions. People struggle with this all the time. Some people have trouble allowing any blemishes on the characters that lead their cause. Other people relish in the blemishes, and use them to discredit the entire movement. Typical examples are the slave owning Founding Fathers, and the plagiarizing Dr Martin Luthur King.

[memracom]

Who knew that people would be human, and so imperfect?