To: quidnunc
Europe opted to pay "protection money" to the Barbary pirates instead of taking them down as well.
How many ransoms have been paid for kidnapped civilians now???
3 posted on
05/02/2005 9:10:14 AM PDT by
weegee
(WE FOUGHT ZOGBYISM November 2, 2004 - 60 Million Voters versus 60 Minutes - BUSH WINS!!!)
To: weegee
Excellent point. Even Jefferson, a pacifist by nature, sent the Navy and Marines to take care of them when they started hanging our merchant sailors on hooks outside their walled cities. Hence the "From the shores of Tripoli to the ...." in the Marine Corps Anthem.
5 posted on
05/02/2005 9:15:04 AM PDT by
MattinNJ
(Stop voter fraud-enact voter ID cards with photos w/ magnetic stripes that prevent multiple voting)
To: weegee
Europe opted to pay "protection money" to the Barbary pirates instead of taking them down as well. It goes even further back than that. Hundreds of years earlier, the king of france paid off the Vikings so they would not sack akd loot paris.
7 posted on
05/02/2005 9:27:16 AM PDT by
rllngrk33
(It's time to end life-time judicial tenure)
To: weegee
Europe opted to pay "protection money" to the Barbary pirates instead of taking them down as well.So did the US much of the time. It was a lot cheaper than fighting a war.
BTW, it was the French who finally ended the practice, by invading and conquering the Barbary states.
11 posted on
05/02/2005 9:34:58 AM PDT by
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