A Vintage U.S. War on Terrorism

In 1815, Washington was in ruins: the White House and Capitol building burned and sacked by the British, the national treasury depleted, the U.S. bruised and battered (but not defeated) by the War of 1812. President James Madison called the Congress to its make-shift chamber at the Post Office Building and asked for something extraordinary: a declaration of war against a state thousands of miles away.

What followed was the U.S.'s first war on terror. This little conflict is now largely forgotten, but it had great and lasting consequences, establishing the U.S. as a global naval power and ending more than two centuries of state-sponsored terrorism in the Mediterranean.

"The End of Barbary Terror" by Frederick Leiner recounts Madison's decision and the war that followed against an enemy that had attacked and tormented European powers greater than the U.S. since the 1500s. The Barbary states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco had run a lucrative kidnapping and slavery racket in the Mediterranean, capturing commercial ships, enslaving thousands of Christians and extorting millions of dollars in ransom and protection money from Europe."Slave taking was jihad," writes Mr. Leiner, and the tactics employed by the Islamic leaders of the Barbary states "were a form of terrorism, a method of seaborne violence meant to intimidate the peoples of Europe." It was essentially a system of government-regulated kidnapping. The pirates would capture ships, forcing their passengers to work as slaves onshore until somebody came up with enough ransom money to buy their freedom.

...continues...

Eventually the major European states simply paid protection money, deciding it was easier to appease the pirates than confront them. "Paying the Barbary rulers a 'license' for trade was less expensive than constantly convoying ships or attacking the Barbary powers in their heavily fortified ports," Mr. Leiner explains. America played the game too. In the five years before the war, the U.S. counsel in Algiers doled out a half-million dollars in "gifts" and "tributes" intended to buy safety for American ships.

In August 1812, a 71-foot-long American trading ship, the Edwin, sailing off the coast of Spain found itself facing an all too common situation in the Mediterranean. A much larger ship from Algiers armed with two rows of cannons overcame the Edwin, capturing the ship and her 10-man crew. The pirates looted the ship and sold the men off to slavery in Algiers.

After the end of the War of 1812, Algiers decided to play hardball with the U.S., demanding a staggering ransom of $1 million for the return of the Edwin's crew. There was logic to the demand. The rulers of Algiers figured that America, its Navy ravaged by war with Britain, could not afford another fight and would decide it would be cheaper to pay the ransom.

It was a serious miscalculation. President Madison dispatched an armada of the U.S.'s 10 available fighting ships, headed by Stephen Decatur, to the Mediterranean. Decatur's mission: bring back the American hostages and their ship. Madison ordered him not to pay a single cent in ransom or tribute to Algiers.

...the book recounts a stunning military success. With a mix of bravery and luck, Decatur defeated two enemy ships on his way to Algiers. Within 48 hours of arriving on the shore of the most powerful Barbary state, Decatur was able to force peace on American terms ("dictated at the mouths of our cannon," as he later said). The U.S.'s infant Navy had scored a victory that had eluded European powers for nearly three centuries.

America's quick victory embarrassed the Europeans and demonstrated that there was no reason to fear the Barbary pirates. Within months, England battled to free British subjects enslaved in Tripoli and soon the entire system of paying tribute to the pirates came crashing down. The American example gave Europe the backbone to fight the terrorists rather than appease them.

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The parallels to today are stunning. Terrorists underestimate the strength and resolve of a strong President of the United States and are beaten. The President dispatches an armada to retrieve our hostages from Muslim terrrorists -- 164 years before Jimmah Cahtah's feckless adventure -- and accomplishes their goal. Europeans follow the path of appeasement for centuries and are led out of the darkness by the infant U.S.

This sounds like a great book!

A number of interesting aspects in all of this.

Islamic terrorism - America's first "foreign war" was the war against the Muslim pirate tyrants of the babary coast (1801-1804).

British interests - The effort to end the terrorism of the Muslim city-states of North Africa began with Jefferson. Britain had been and was still paying tribute to avoid her ships being attacked. She could have destroyed the barbary states, but continuing to pay tribute let the terrorists free to harass Britains maritime competitors. After independence the terrorists considered U.S. ships fair game - no longer covered by Britains tribute.

Knowing when to negotiate and when to take action - Hostilities between the babary states and the U.S. broke out in 1801. Commodore Richard Dale's blockade of Tripoli failed to daunt the pirates. Jefferson decided to try negotiation. His special envoy, a naval commander, Richard Valentine Morris could not reach an agreement with the pasha of Tripoli. The war continued and included Tunis and Algiers as well. The US diplomatic envoy in Tunis, Eaton, quarreled with Morris over the campaign. The blockade of Tripoli was lifted, and the U.S. considered resuming tribute payments. Edward Preble succeeded Morris as the U.S. commander in the Mediterranean. Preble dispatched the frigate Philadelphia to resume the blockade. A storm drove it aground, it was captured, with captain and crew imprisoned. [So much for negotiation and gunboat diplomacy.]

Men of action - Decatur had command of the brig Argus. He left most of his crew on the Arghus, took a small schooner (* see bleow) and used it to capture an enemy ketch named Mastico. He then used that vessel (** see below) to execute a night raid into Tripoli harbor to destroy the former U.S. frigate Philadelphia. Admiral Lord Nelson is said to have called this "the most bold and daring act of the age." This daring and extremely successful operation made Lieutenant Decatur an immediate national hero, a status that was enhanced by his courageous conduct during the 3 August 1804 bombardment of Tripoli. In that action, he led his men in hand-to-hand fighting while boarding and capturing an enemy gunboat. Decatur was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain, and over the next eight years had command of several frigates.

For you real history buffs:

* The name of the schooner that Decatur took to capture the enemy ketch named Mantico was the Enterprise.

** After its capture, Decature re-commissioned the Mantico, giving it the name Intrepid.

Oh, and by the way, Deactur was all of 25 years old at the time of the raid on Tripoli.

Nothing less than surrender 1 - Despite Deactur's exploits, Preble was unable to take Tripoli, and, in September 1804, he was succeeded by Samuel Barron. Meanwhile William Eaton convinced the U.S. government of a plan for supporting a rival claimant for the rule of Tripoli, with a land expedition from Egypt across North Africa to the port of Derna. Before he could advance farther, the war ended. John Rodgers was sent out with a strong force in May, 1805, reaching a settlement in June. The U.S. prisoners were ransomed, and Tripoli renounced all rights to halt or to levy tribute on American ships.

Nothing less than surrender 2 - Though it was the most favorable agreement yet made, the treaty did not end the threat of piracy to U.S. shipping. During the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, the pirates increased their raids on American commerce and Algiers actually declared war on the United States. In 1815 a squadron under Decatur forced Algiers to sign a treaty renouncing U.S. tribute, and the so-called Algerine War was ended. After 1815 the United States no longer paid tribute to any Barbary State.

A final note: In 1986, 171 years after the treaty that ended the babary piracy, terrorists operating from Tripoli planted a bomb in a popular GI hang-out , the La Belle disco. The bomb killed two US servicement, a Turkish woman, and maimed another 229 people. Reagan bombed Libya as retaliation. It took the US government 10 days to retaliate for the attack by bombing Libya - it took 15 years, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, to convict the attackers.

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