What Would Thomas Jefferson Say Today?

America's War on Terror

America's War: What Would Thomas Jefferson Say About War on Terror?

It was the pacifist Jefferson, elected President in 1801, who stunned an American republic by sending out American war party ships to the North African coast. The destination: Tripoli of Tunisia and Morocco. The purpose: destroy the Islamic terrorist threats that were pirating American shipping across the African oceans.

Who on God’s green earth could be so powerful as to demand ransom and hold hostage the commercial powers of England, France, Denmark, and Americans? The Barbary pirates, of which scores of movies and plays have since been made, were absolutely crippling in the 1790’s to all shipping and commerce in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. The Barbary Pirates of North Africa were a feared and destructive bunch.

So how did the Europeans address Islamic terror on the high seas in the early 19th century? Ransom money, pay-offs, and bribes were the trick. Like bullies on the playground who steal the lunch of the little kids, the Barbary Pirates bullied the most powerful European nations on earth. In fact, because the colonies of America had no navy to speak of in 1784, even the Congress paid $60,000 to the terrorists of Tripoli, Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis to create free passage for its merchant ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Of the French and English, instead of warring with this Islamic threat, pay-offs to renegade Islamic regents were less costly, at least initially. To pay off the bad guys for protection across the sea lanes was much more practical. Of course, quality pirates have one flaw with making a deal. They don’t keep their word. When more money is offered by another trading nation, the Barbary pirates raised the price for appeasement on every other nation.

Thus, President Jefferson entered the fray. A states rights man who despised standing militias as dangerous to the republic, cast his lot to fight terror and fund it with money he didn’t have. Within six weeks of taking office, it was time to attack to protect American interests abroad. Is it not remarkable that the American republic fought two wars on terror and the American Revolution from Jefferson to Madison in a fourteen years period?

Although the Europeans thought it better to yield to terror demands on the high seas, Jefferson’s Congress paid for naval war ships that set sail to right the injustices against her merchant shipping. Those responsible who had captured innocent American vessels, stripped them bare, and held America’s sailors for ransom were going to pay.

These were Islamic terrorists who would bear the brunt America's newfound creation: the marines and their anthem which hailed the phrase “the shores of Tripoli”. Within fifteen years, the marines supplied by a compliant Congress brought the Barbary pirates to their knees. The terror that had nabbed merchant vessels and sailors alike around the coast of Africa, the Mediterranean, and Atlantic were no longer a threat.

And who were America’s new heroes? Here to stay were names like commodore Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge that placed the American navy and marines on the world’s stage.

Although these North African Islamic terrorists went back to pirating and profiteering during the American Revolution, American and European eyes set their targets on the terrorists and bombed Algiers, Morocco, and Tunisian shores into final submission. For Americans, the sweet day of March 15, 1815 marked the sailing of Commodores’ Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge and ten fighting ships to rid the terror of the high seas near North and West Africa. Decatur signed a release of America from payment in perpetuity to pirates. And on June 16, 1815, America had loosened itself free from the grip of terrorism.

It was 1816 that the British and Dutch followed America’s lead. Bombing the port of Algiers brought high sea terror to an end for both England and Holland as well. Treaties were signed. Commercial shipping was now pirate-free along the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean.

So what is the moral of America’s first war on terror? Every generation has its terrorists who malign, kill, and rob innocent people of their freedoms. Did not Thomas Jefferson identify rogue terrorist sponsoring states and lay aim to beat down this threat against American interests? Did not President Jefferson have the courage to lead the attack on those states sponsoring terror? After only 14 years, terror had been defeated. Merchant shipping had been set free.

Today we have a choice even in the midst of a debacle in Iraq:

Will we call ourselves Neville Chamberlain’s children hide behind the rhetoric of peace as Israel has appraently done with the Hezbollah terrorist state to their north?

Or will we we courageously take aim at every terrorist sponsoring state including Iran, Assyria, Hamas of Palestine, and Hezbollah- and intelligently fight a Jeffersonian war against these rogue states?