Islamic Revolutionary Guards Commander Threatens to Shut Down Mediterranean-The Islamic Republic might want to reflect on how Americans handled the Barbary Pirates

Didn’t the Barbary Pirates capture USS Philadelphia and her crew? Stephen Decatur did regain the crew, but had set fire the the ship. So it’s not like went in there, kicked some ass and went home.

Britain had long felt that it was more economical to pay Barbary a fee to not attack their ships than actually go to war with them. But after independence our ships were not covered by Britain’s fee and so they were fair game. We did eventually get them to agree not to mess with our ships.

Iran’s threat to ‘close the Med’ directly affects several nations that do have a bit of naval power—the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, to name four. Let them take the lead. We are a world leader, for better or worse, so I have no objection to our being a part of telling Iran to not F.A.

Perhaps Brandon could stop giving them billions of dollars as a start.

History is a set of lies agreed upon — Napoleon

And he was, and is, right.

Particularly in US history books.

The Barbary Muslims were raiding shipping in the Med, capturing it, enslaving the crews and negotiating treaties with countries to leave their shipping alone in return for Tribute/Protection payments -— for CENTURIES. Christian countries paid it willingly. As well as ransoming the slaves.

That means England, France, Italy, yes, all the majors. It was cheaper than funding warship escorts.

Guess who else paid? The new United States. For many years. It is why the Barbary Wars are covered so sparsely. Shame.

Those Muslims also were some smart people. Payment could not be made in dollars or even gold. It had to be naval stores. The diplomats of Christian countries hated this because you could not skim rope.

One day in Algiers a Tribute payment from the US arrived containing only 1 rope of particular diameter. That shipment was supposed to hold 27. The Dey gave orders to beat US slaves daily until payment arrived, which it did weeks later with a letter of apology.

Now you see why we hear of the heroism of that time. It is all manufactured.

*Americans took on the Barbary Pirates because they were attacking U.S. ships and disrupting American commerce. If Jefferson had dispatched the U.S. Navy to protect Danish ships operating under the flag of Singapore transporting cargo from Asia to Europe, he would have been set on fire on the front lawn of Monticello.*

Just what are we doing in NATO?
Something tells me fighting these pirates was-you got it-corporate welfare/neocon/one-world stuff. Negotiating ransom? How about letting the merchant marines take their chances? What did the American taxpayer owe the merchant class? Or Haliburton for that matter?

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