[StBernard] Thomas Jefferson, American Hostages and Somali Pirates

[Westley Annis]

Thomas Jefferson, American Hostages and Somali Pirates 
by Chuck Norris (more by this author)
Posted 04/21/2009 ET
Updated 04/21/2009 ET


A couple of weeks ago, Somali pirates hijacked a cargo ship with 20 American
crew members on board. Thank God and the Navy SEALs that they all got out
alive. But will Americans be as lucky next time?

During 2008 alone, these thugs raided more than 130 vessels, resulting in 50
successful hijackings and millions of dollars paid in ransoms. With at least
five well-organized pirate gangs off the Horn of Africa -- including the
al-Shabab militia, which is a group of Islamic extremists that some people
compare to the Taliban -- all seeking and splitting the spoils of these sea
traders, isn't it time America better protects our merchant mariners in
volatile areas, such as off the Somali coast? Isn't it time they are armed
with better deterrents than fire hoses, rubber bullets and sonic weapons?
Isn't it time our Navy SEALs reach land and cut pirates off at the pass?

Ransoms only enable these hooligans. And negotiations never work with them.
We need to cut them off so that no one else goes missing in action. For
proof of that, we only need to look back and learn from our revolutionary
predecessors. Our Founding Fathers not only demonstrated how we need to
rescue our citizens but also instilled the notion within these pirates that
America never will appease or tolerate captors and that we never will pay
their ransoms again.

Some might not know that America has been dealing with African marauding
mariners since our inception. Though it's not a direct parallel, I believe
we need to do as Thomas Jefferson did during the Barbary Wars, in which
Muslim extremists, or pirates, from the Barbary States (Tripoli, Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco, which were semi-independent provinces of Turkey) fought
many countries, including the new United States, that they considered
Christian nations.

While the United States was mopping up from the Revolutionary War, we also
were squaring off against largely Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean Sea.
These sea bandits cruised the coastlines stealing cargo, destroying
villages, and enslaving millions of Africans and hundreds of thousands of
Christian Europeans and Americans. Because America was a newborn nation, we
had relatively little naval defense. Our rebellion against Britain severed
our protection by the Royal Navy. And while France helped during the
Revolutionary War, we were on our own as of about 1783. And so our merchant
ships were exceptionally vulnerable to attack in and out of the Great Sea.
As a result, our cargo and seamen were captured, and our country's leaders
were forced to negotiate with the Barbary pirates.

In 1784, envoys were dispatched to secure peace and passage from the Barbary
States. Treaties were made. Tributes and ransoms were paid. Our cargo and
captives were freed. And our ships traveled safely. But over the next decade
and a half, we gave millions of dollars to these radicals, including an
estimated 20 percent of our federal budget in 1800! (Despite that, men such
as Thomas Jefferson argued vehemently against paying ransoms and tribute;
Jefferson believed the only road to resolution would be through the "medium
of war.")

America's first four presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison)
each dealt with this east-west conflict of powers to varying degrees. Though
numerous negotiations and treaties were made, including the Treaty of
Tripoli (1796-97), Tripoli (in present-day Libya) still declared war against
the U.S. in 1801. It sometimes is called America's first official war. The
Founders believed in a foreign policy of noninterventionism, but Jefferson
realized that protecting America's borders also meant protecting American
lives and property overseas.

He confessed to Congress in 1801 that he was "unauthorized by the
Constitution, without the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of
defense," but he still ordered a small fleet of warships to the
Mediterranean to ward off attacks by the Barbary States. Marines and
warships were deployed to the region. That eventually led to the 1805
surrender of Tripoli. It would take another decade, however, to defeat those
pirates completely, or, should I say, cause them to retreat until a distant
time when they would attack our country again.

America's victory back then over those sea radicals is commemorated today in
"The Marines' Hymn," with the words "From the halls of Montezuma, to the
shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles in the air, on land and
sea."

The voices of our forefathers cry out from the Barbary Wars in the hopes of
imparting some wisdom to us. As the adage goes, we either will learn from
history's mistakes or be doomed to repeat them.