Navaleye,
They are not terrorists, or legal OR illegal combatants. They are either criminals or potential criminals. Your 'example' is sheer murder, pure and simple. As the average pirate does not kill anyone you are making the punishment far FAR worse than the actual criminal event, thus making a total mockery of the law.
By your warped logic, you'd better start ordering up strikes on Irish bars and pubs in New York and Chicago as well as every city in Saudi Arabia, from whence a great deal of terrorist funding has also originated.
So very glad that you are NOT currently in uniform.