Escalate to what? They’re already doing all kinds of pirate stuff, and I don’t think they’re strong enough to threaten anything else the West cares about on their own. What seems like the obvious Western play would be to keep intercepting attacks from warships for at least a few weeks. It’s more expensive, but would give critical time to deal with all the other, bigger issues in the Middle East.
Escalate to what? They’re already doing all kinds of pirate stuff, and I don’t think they’re strong enough to threaten anything else the West cares about on their own. What seems like the obvious Western play would be to keep intercepting attacks from warships for at least a few weeks. It’s more expensive, but would give critical time to deal with all the other, bigger issues in the Middle East.