"A random thought....why the heck have they tolerated this Sumalian piracy for so long????"

Surely you must be listening to the same CNN that I do, on occasion.
They have not been tolerating, they just could not do much about it. The area of the Indian ocean involved is bigger than your Texas and it is small boats that do not show up well on radar, finally there are not enough patrol boats to do a good job.
Last of all, the maritame shipping companies do not arm the sailors but have armed guards on some of the ships. That means many of the ships are practically defenceless.

It almost as hopeless as us hoping to see ECU above a dollar.

Cheer up, eventually things do come to a resolution.