Posted on 12/27/2005 1:55:32 PM PST by verytired75
America’s Earliest Terrorists: Lessons from America’s first war against Islamic terror.
By Joshua E. London (author of "Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation," John Wiley & Sons, September 2005, http://www.victoryintripoli.com/ )
At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected United States president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation — an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists. Worse still, these Islamic partisans operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue Arab states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators.
Sluggish in recognizing the full nature of the threat, America entered the war well after the enemy’s call to arms. Poorly planned and feebly executed, the American effort proceeded badly and at great expense — resulting in a hastily negotiated peace and an equally hasty declaration of victory.
As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates. Unfortunately, many of the easy lessons to be plucked from this experience have yet to be fully learned.
The Barbary states, modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, are collectively known to the Arab world as the Maghrib (“Land of Sunset”), denoting Islam’s territorial holdings west of Egypt. With the advance of Mohammed’s armies into the Christian Levant in the seventh century, the Mediterranean was slowly transformed into the backwater frontier of the battles between crescent and cross. Battles raged on both land and sea, and religious piracy flourished.
The Maghrib served as a staging ground for Muslim piracy throughout the Mediterranean, and even parts of the Atlantic. America’s struggle with the terror of Muslim piracy from the Barbary states began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776, and continued for roughly four decades, finally ending in 1815.
Although there is much in the history of America’s wars with the Barbary pirates that is of direct relevance to the current “war on terror,” one aspect seems particularly instructive to informing our understanding of contemporary Islamic terrorists. Very simply put, the Barbary pirates were committed, militant Muslims who meant to do exactly what they said.
Take, for example, the 1786 meeting in London of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Tripolitan ambassador to Britain. As American ambassadors to France and Britain respectively, Jefferson and Adams met with Ambassador Adja to negotiate a peace treaty and protect the United States from the threat of Barbary piracy.
These future United States presidents questioned the ambassador as to why his government was so hostile to the new American republic even though America had done nothing to provoke any such animosity. Ambassador Adja answered them, as they reported to the Continental Congress, “that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
Sound familiar?
--- This is just an excerpt, click on the link for the entire article --
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/comment/london200512160955.asp
Awesome, post!! This totally squashes the argument from the Muslims about "Oil, and Israel".
The more things change the more they stay the same. Islam is a scourge on the world now and always has been since it's inception.
Barbary piracy continued right up till France conquered them.
For what it is worth, I have read Mr. London's book, Victory in Tripoli, and I think it is an excellent history and a great read.
There are some very good reviews of it on Amazon.com. Here is what I had written for Amazon.com:
"I got this as a gift from my father, who bought a copy for himself based on a review he read in the National Review magazine. I'm not much of a writer, so I'll simply cite that review for this truly fun and rewarding book. It is well written, is a good length, and makes a great gift!
"Here is what Michael Potemra of National Review (National Review: October 24, 2005: page 66) said about this excellent volume of history:
"In 'Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation' (Wiley, 276 pp., $24.95), Washington-based writer Joshua E. London tells an exciting story of the War on Terror -- circa 1800. The Mediterranean pirates were demanding tribute from U.S. vessels; little over a decade into the existence of the new federal government, an American administration struggled over how to respond. President Thomas Jefferson understood, early on, what was necessary: 'I know that nothing will stop the eternal increase of demands from these pirates but the presence of an armed force.' But there would be much failure and frustration before victory finally came. Indeed, while the 'Shores of Tripoli' are remembered to this day in the Marine Corps hymn, America's triumph there in 1805 did not put an end to the pirates' terrorism; further U.S. force would prove necessary. London's fascinating account gives us cause for hope that even long, twilight struggles can, after twists and turns of ugly politics, end in victory."
ping
Thanks for the ping. I read this article last week.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542760/posts
Posted by voletti
On News/Activism 12/18/2005 5:44:25 AM PST, 13 replies, 465+ views
I did a paper on the Tripolitan War in high school in the 90's. Pretty interesting bit of history.
ROP bump!
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