Posted on 04/08/2009 12:20:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Pirates and the United States have a long history. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.
When the infant country declared independence it had no navy, so battling Britain at sea was a problem.
The time-honored solution: Hire private warriors — known as privateers to some, pirates to others — to do the fighting.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Technically, privateers are under contract of a government or other entity, pirates are independent of national allegiance.
Leave it up to a Leftist rag to show the USA as a “Bad Guy” in a crisis....
“Leave it up to a Leftist rag to show the USA as a “Bad Guy” in a crisis....”
It’s ridiculous. Trying to compare modern day pirates to what the US did 200 years ago? lol
The article neglected to bring Bush and Cheney into the discussion. The editor should have sent it back for a rewrite.
It always humored (and annoyed) me when libs were complaining about the privatization of our military when discussing "Black Water" a few years ago.
When in fact, the US - like many other nations - has a long history, dating back to almost the beginning, of out-sourcing some of its security responsibilities. If it wasn't the privateers in the 1700's then in was the Pinkertons in the late 1800's. What went on with Black Water wasn't new and it certainly wasn't unprecedented in American history.
The idiots don't know the difference between freelance pirates of the Blackbeard variety, and citizens with Letters of Marque (specifically authorized in the Constitution)?
They are fools, or worse, actively lying.
For one thing, letters of marque only authorize raids on the commerce of a belligerent. If the U.S. is at war with, say, Britain, attacks on the commerce of any other flagged vessels are piracy. Once hostilities cease, the letters of marque are no longer in effect.
Pirates raid the commerce of any nation, at any time.
Usual lib ignorance. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution (yeah, I know they have even heard of it, much less read it) grants Congress the authority to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal. So, know we didn’t use pirates; these were Americans authorized and carrying official papers to permit them to make war on the enemy’s shipping.
good ol’ TJ
Sounds like this was written by your usual liberal Globalist......one of those Free Trade Liberals, trying to justify piracy...while ignoring the fact that domestic manufacturing is a lot safer than Free Trade
Of course, Free Trade Libs never mention the fact that most of these Somali pirates get their weapons from the same nation that is giving weapons to the Mexican drug cartels....and that nation is COMMUNIST CHINA
Still we have people pushing Free Trade with COMMUNIST CHINA....yet when our biggest security threat is COMMUNIST CHINA
And it need not be a belligerent nation (e.g. the Barbary Pirates), but a private man o' war and a pirate are two entirely different breeds of cat.
Thomas Truxton, privateer,
later a Commodore in the American Navy
don't have to tell you who HE is . . .
Pirates sailed where they wanted, and took whatever they could from any nation or source. Under the law 300 years ago, pirates could be hanged on capture, after it was proved that they were pirates.
Privateers, on the other hand, Operated within the law. They were private, but they sailed under a grant of power from Congress, called a letter of marque and reprisal. That stated what nation's ships or other targets the captain was authorized to attack.
The very first case in the US Supreme Court was The Schooner Peggy, and concerned whether the American captain who had taken the French ship under a letter of marque was required to return the ship after the US and France signed a protocol ending their differences.
The AP is not merely incompetent, it is aggressively and viciously stupid.
Congressman Billybob
Latest article, "Symptom of a Constitutional Disease"
The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.
Which is why we have Marines, From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. Actually our first post revolution war was with the Pirates.
Oh the year was seventeen seventy eight
I wish I were in Sherbrooke now!
A letter of marque came from the King
To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's privateers.
Oh Elcid Barrett cried the town,
I wish I were in Sherbrooke now!
For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who
Would make for him the Antelope's crew,
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's privateers.
The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight.
She'd a list to port and her sails in rags,
And a cook in the scuppers with staggers and jags.
On the King's birthday we put to sea.
We were ninety-one days to Montego bay,
Pumping like madmen all the way.
On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again.
When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked four-pounders we made to fight
The Yankee lay low down with gold.
She was broad and fat and loose in stays,
But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days
Then at length we stood two cables away.
Our cracked four-pounders made an awful din,
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in.
The Antelope shook and pitched on her side.
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs,
And the maintruck carried off both me legs.
So here I lay in my twenty-third year.
It's been six years since we sailed away,
And I just made Halifax yesterday.
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