Clinton made us look weak in Somalia in 1996 and basically let Somalia turn into an Islamic hell-hole. And while Bush didn’t do much about Somalia specifically, you have to admit that he had other things on his plate. However, at least the pirates knew that the US was on the side of its citizens and that is one of the reasons they didn’t attack US flagged ships.
They do now, because they know the current Occupant doesn’t give a good GD about Americans.