Your Wiki article is misguided and wrong. Both Jefferson and Washington rejected non-intervention arguments and intervened and waged war in order to protect American interests abroad during the first Barbary war. Many at the time argued that we shouldn’t be concerned with interests in the Old World but that argument was rejected by both Jefferson and Washington. Thus the pervert Ron Paul is dead wrong and clueless about the Founders.
Ron Paul is an isolationist or a non-interventionist depending on the issue. He has a love for Islamic dictatorships and terrorists. He hasn’t a clue though about freedom and would be a disaster if ever given enough power.
The Barbary pirates were seizing American ships in the med - a legitimate reason for the actions the US took and completely in line with the good doctor's foreign policy positions.
...pervert Ron Paul...
A violation of FR's posting rules and a good reason to want no further interaction with you.
Ron Paul is an isolationist or a non-interventionist depending on the issue. He has a love for Islamic dictatorships and terrorists. He hasn’t a clue though about freedom and would be a disaster if ever given enough power.Good summary of RP.
Even Jefferson the ulimate constutionalist saw the need to occasionally ‘punch a international bully in the nose!’
“Michael Oren thinks that he made the decision reluctantly, finally forced into it by the arrogant behavior of Tripoli, which seized two American brigs and set off a chain reaction of fresh demands from other Barbary states. I believe—because of the encounter with the insufferable Abd Al-Rahman and because of his long engagement with Jones—that Jefferson had long sought a pretext for war. His problem was his own party and the clause in the Constitution that gave Congress the power to declare war. With not atypical subtlety, Jefferson took a shortcut through this thicket in 1801 and sent the navy to North Africa on patrol, as it were, with instructions to enforce existing treaties and punish infractions of them. Our third president did not inform Congress of his authorization of this mission until the fleet was too far away to recall.”
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html