I was astonished to hear recently (I just finished Raymond Ibraham’s excellent book “Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and The West” where he made that statement about how much out of the US federal budget was being paid each year in tribute to the Barbary Pirates...16%!
And to realize the British were just paying it.
Between the 15th and 19th Centuries, 1.25 million Europeans and Americans were captured and enslaved by the Barbary Pirates.
Yep. We kicked their terrorist derrieres.