No, they wouldn’t be alive - or if they were, they’d be wishing they were dead. Read about how the pirates treated some British yachters they caught.
And what about the people on freighters who have been captured? They’re just doing their job, but the pirates are so emboldened now that the pirates hold more than 30 ships and hundreds of people of all nationalities. That is not the fault of the victims, regardless of who they are.
These sailors were not in Somali waters and American sailors, in any case, have usually been ignored because the pirates thought it might be too dangerous to them. Obviously they don’t think that way anymore.
But why are you willing to hand over a whole stretch of the ocean to a bunch of crazy qat-chewing primitives who believe they’re doing Allah’s work (since a lot of the money goes to terrorist causes after the war-lords get their share)? We can’t let that happen.
It’s like saying that if you get mugged, you shouldn’t have been out on the street in the first place. That’s idiotic, and all blaming the victim does is embolden the criminals.
Read my response again and focus on the part where they deliberately left the relative safety of the small flotilla that had been organized (by fellow yachtsmen) to ensure some degree of a safe passage thru these dangerous waters. That was incredibly stupid on their part, actions have consequences, and when people act in a stupid & irresponsible manner they should expect to deal with the results of their action. Not put others in harms way to extricate them from a situation that could have been avoided.