No more appeasement: Joseph Farah tells how Thomas Jefferson ended Islamic terrorism

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | Joseph Farah

[JohnHuang2]

Most Americans probably think the Islamic terrorists declared war on the United States Sept. 11, 2001.

Actually, it started a long time before – right from the birth of the nation.

When George Washington was serving as president in 1784, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were commissioned by the first Congress to assemble in Paris to see about marketing U.S. products in Europe.

Jefferson quickly surmised that the biggest challenge facing U.S. merchant ships were those referred to euphemistically as "Barbary pirates."

They weren't "pirates" at all, in the traditional sense, Jefferson noticed. They didn't drink and chase women and they really weren't out to strike it rich. Instead, their motivation was strictly religious. They bought and sold slaves, to be sure. They looted ships. But they used their booty to buy guns, ships, cannon and ammunition.

Like those we call "terrorists" today, they saw themselves engaged in jihad and called themselves "mujahiddin."

Why did these 18th-century terrorists represent such a grave threat to U.S. merchant ships? With independence from Great Britain, the former colonists lost the protection of the greatest navy in the world. The U.S. had no navy – not a single warship.

Jefferson inquired of his European hosts how they dealt with the problem. He was stunned to find out that France and England both paid tribute to the fiends – who would, in turn, use the money to expand their own armada, buy more weaponry, hijack more commercial ships, enslave more innocent civilians and demand greater ransom.

This didn't make sense to Jefferson. He recognized the purchase of peace from the Muslims only worked temporarily. They would always find an excuse to break an agreement, blame the Europeans and demand higher tribute.

After three months researching the history of militant Islam, he came up with a very different policy to deal with the terrorists. But he didn't get to implement until years later.

As the first secretary of state, Jefferson urged the building of a navy to rescue American hostages held in North Africa and to deter future attacks on U.S. ships. In 1792, he commissioned John Paul Jones to go to Algiers under the guise of diplomatic negotiations, but with the real intent of sizing up a future target of a naval attack.

Jefferson was ready to retire a year later when what could only be described as "America's first Sept. 11" happened.

America was struck with its first mega-terror attack by jihadists. In the fall of 1793, the Algerians seized 11 U.S. merchant ships and enslaved more than 100 Americans.

When word of the attack reached New York, the stock market crashed. Voyages were canceled in every major port. Seamen were thrown out of work. Ship suppliers went out of business. What Sept. 11 did to the U.S. economy in 2001, the mass shipjacking of 1793 did to the fledgling U.S. economy in that year.

Accordingly, it took the U.S. Congress only four months to decide to build a fleet of warships.

But even then, Congress didn't choose war, as Jefferson prescribed. Instead, while building what would become the U.S. Navy, Congress sent diplomats to reason with the Algerians. The U.S. ended up paying close to $1 million and giving the pasha of Algiers a new warship, "The Crescent," to win release of 85 surviving American hostages.

It wasn't until 1801, under the presidency of Jefferson, that the U.S. engaged in what became a four-year war against Tripoli. And it wasn't until 1830, when France occupied Algiers, and later Tunisia and Morocco, that the terrorism on the high seas finally ended.

France didn't leave North Africa until 1962 – and it quickly became a major base of terrorism once again.

What's the moral of the story? Appeasement never works. Jefferson saw it. Sept. 11 was hardly the beginning. The war in which we fight today is the longest conflict in human history. It's time to learn from history, not repeat its mistakes.

[Travis McGee]

The war in which we fight today is the longest conflict in human history. It's time to learn from history, not repeat its mistakes.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***The war in which we fight today is the longest conflict in human history.***


Indeed it is!


"You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."

[hedgetrimmer]

Just started reading about this in a book called "The Commodores". To defend American ships and interests against the Algerian blackmailers was one reason the United States Congress approved the creation of a federal navy. The original navy was commissioned with exactly the ships and firepower Congress felt was needed to overpower the Algerians and stop the kidnapping and ransome of Americans and American merchant ships.

[Spirited]

Guess the current President is not an historian.
So we waffle.

[Grampa Dave]

You sound like the real waffle, al Querry.

Your hatred of the president has destroyed your ability to think!

You want a waffle go to your buddy al Querry.

[Texasforever]

It wasn't until 1801, under the presidency of Jefferson, that the U.S. engaged in what became a four-year war against Tripoli

This is not quite correct. Jefferson was dragged kicking and screaming into the Barbary Wars. It was Congress that told him to get off his duff and do something. He had refused to do anything until Congress "declared war" a point that Hamilton belittled him over since the BP had already declared war. Jefferson only acted when Congress passed a joint resolution directing him to take action. That joint resolution was the model used for the WOT congressional joint resolution.

[Texasforever]

You sound like the real waffle, al Querry.

The article is historically inaccurate.

[Moonman62]

What Sept. 11 did to the U.S. economy in 2001, the mass shipjacking of 1793 did to the fledgling U.S. economy in that year.

911 didn't have much of a negative effect on our economy. If anything, it got Greenspan to take his boot off the economy's neck.

[pt17]

The article is historically inaccurate

How so?

[ccmay]

What's the moral of the story?

Easy. Christendom must suppress Islam in the harshest manner. The Mohammedan fiend must always have our boot on his filthy throat.

[gracex7]

Interesting article. I always wondered what we had done 'to the shores of Tripoli'.

I suppose a pacifist would denigrate Jefferson's actions by saying that 9-11 never would have happened if we had just rolled over and surrendered all those years ago. (I noticed that they refered to themselves as "mujahiddin", which is the same name the Afghanis used who fought against the Soviet invasion.)

[Barset]

Thank you for posting this. It makes sense to view the Islamic jihad against the West as a continuum and not as a series of isolated incidents.

Since the eighteenth century the West's wars have been limited in purpose, colonies, independence, trade routes, etc., and lacked the religious fervor or frenzy of wars in the middle ages.

Islam, though, over centuries, has never lost its focus, the conversion or complete destruction of non-Islamic people.

We are not fighting a "war on terror" but skirmishes to quell the most violent and dangerous jihadists, while the "moderate" Muslims stake out their bases within the nations of the West to await the final suicide of the West.

Judging by the the abortion worshippers' mass indulgence in the pornography of infanticide last weekend, Islam has not long to wait.

[Brilliant]

Good read.

[oh8eleven]

And just who did we send to Tripoli?

1805 - U.S. Marines assemble a fleet to Derna, Tripoli to put down Barbary Coast pirates taking a toll on American merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon and his Marines marched across 600 miles of North Africa's Libyan Desert to successfully storm the fortified Tripolitan City of Derna. Marines today sing about the victory in the second line of their hymn: "to the shores of Tripoli." The Marine Corps officer sword, adopted in 1826 and used today, is modeled after the Mameluke scimitar given to O'Bannon in appreciation.

They marched 600 miles across the desert and still kicked butt! Semper Fi ...

[jslade]

"From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of TRIPOLI" Where have I heard those words before?

[ought-six]

"The article is historically inaccurate." You replied: "How so?"

Well, everybody knows thatthe Pirates are from Pittsburgh, not Barbary (although they may have a farm club in Barbary).

[ought-six]

"Islam, though, over centuries, has never lost its focus, the conversion or complete destruction of non-Islamic people. We are not fighting a 'war on terror' but skirmishes to quell the most violent and dangerous jihadists, while the 'moderate' Muslims stake out their bases within the nations of the West to await the final suicide of the West."

That's a fact.

[GBA]

Here's a "Thanks for posting this!" bump. A very interesting read!

[pt17]

Well, everybody knows thatthe Pirates are from Pittsburgh, not Barbary (although they may have a farm club in Barbary).

LOL, of course, how stupid of me.