[abu afak]

Ping!

[John Filson]

bump for later, thanks; lots of timely material here

[adaven]

Interesting stuff. Thanks.

[Cindy]

Thank you abu afak for the ping.

I'm always interested in history.

[ThePythonicCow]

Well dang -- I'll be.

I remember reading the biography of Stephen Decatur as a kid, and his adventures defeating the pirates.

I don't recall them mentioning that this was a religious war, with the Christian Americans fighting the Islamic Terrorists who thought they could go to heaven by killing Christians, and with the Americans having to save the European backsides.

Somethings never change. And somethings never seem to get reported honestly.

[nopardons]

bttt

[endthematrix]

Cartoons by Bentley Boyd

[konaice]

The Muslim faith took root in northwestern Africa in the seventh century, and for generations the region served as a base for piracy — the looting and confiscation of ships as well as the murder of crew members.

The more things change the more they remain the same. ROP alert.

[tkathy]

I thought that the Barbary pirates took Americans as slaves.

[Jackknife]

Ping!

[Senator Goldwater]

" the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli declared the United States’ religious neutrality, “in an attempt to prevent further escalation of a ‘Holy War’ between Christians and Muslims.” Article XI of the treaty states that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion . . . it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of [Muslims].”

But the 1797 treaty failed"

No surprise there.

[CORedneck]

We need another General Black Pershing ! Time to dip our bombs and bullets in pig blood and use them on these terrorists and deny them their so-called 72 virgins.

[American in Israel]

Just like today, the terrorism is set in a framework of religion, but grows fat from booty. My guess is if we removed the financial incentives to terrorism, we would have much greater results than our attempts to convince bloodthirsty pirates that theirs is a religion of peace.

Why are we giving Palestinian Terrorists money?

[nsmart]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[sheltonmac]

Jefferson's challenge resembles President Bush's modern-day dilemma. Like today's terrorists, the 19th-century pirates also were Muslims with an animosity toward Christians dating back to the Crusades.

This lie has been used over and over by the pseudocons to justify their war in Iraq. Jefferson never used the Barbary pirates as an excuse to topple foreign governments, to engage in nation-building or to spread democracy across the globe. Upon congressional authorization, he took specific action against a specific enemy for a specific purpose, that being the defense of the United States.

[TheOtherOne]

"It may seem like the terrorist war against the United States is only a few weeks old,"

I just don't get this sentence. Who thinks terrorism against the US is only weeks old?

[bigsigh]

raiding ships to take booty, does not constitute hatred of a nation.

[colorado tanker]

Jefferson was so bad. He got America into a quagmire in North Africa and then declared the mission accomplished. Why didn't we just "negotiate" and pay tribute like the Europeans???

[EdReform]

Ping

[Publius6961]

Article XI of the treaty states that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion . . . it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of [Muslims].”

This line, as I understand it was an unauthorized addition by one of the diplomats tangentially involved in the negotiation of the treaty. He might have been merely the scribe.

In any event, it's remarkable that no on caught the embarrassing addition to all the copies of the treaty for decades!