The Barbary Pirates: Islamic Terrorism and America’s First Military Victory

pjmedia.com ^ | 6/8/2018 | Raymond Ibrahim

[rktman]

Editor’s note: The following account is partially excerpted from the author’s new book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (with a foreword by Victor Davis Hanson).

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Many Americans erroneously trace the roots of Islamic terrorism against their nation to September 11, 2001. In reality, the United States’ very first conflict with Muslim terrorists was also its very first war as a nation -- and it won that war 213 years ago, on June 10, 1805.

Centuries before that, the Barbary States of Muslim North Africa -- specifically Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis -- had been thriving on the slave trade of Europeans abducted from virtually every corner of coastal Europe, including Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and Iceland. These raids were so successful, “between 1530 and 1780 there were almost certainly a million and quite possibly as many as a million and a quarter white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast,” to quote American historian Robert Davis.

[rktman]

Based on the following, where's my reparations? “....between 1530 and 1780 there were almost certainly a million and quite possibly as many as a million and a quarter white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast,....”. Just sayin'. If I recall correctly (questionable) there were about 300k africans brought to the US. So, quit whining and be thankful your ancestors were brought here. Otherwise, you might not exist.

[Yo-Yo]

"From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli"

The line "To the shores of Tripoli" refers to the First Barbary War, and specifically the Battle of Derne in 1805.

[rktman]

And the first part due to drinking water in meh-eek-O? LOL! I am familiar with the MC “fight song”. :-)

[DIRTYSECRET]

Jefferson took it to them. Washington wanted to continue paying them off and John Adams openly worked against Jefferson’s efforts. Sound familiar?

[SandRat]

USMC - The term “leatherneck” was derived from a leather stock once worn around the neck by both American and British Marines. In the United States, beginning in 1798, “one stock of black leather and clasp” was issued to each Marine every year.[2] Its use as a synecdoche for Marines began as a term of ridicule by sailors

[rktman]

Sailors. Tars? LOL!

[Petrosius]

I thought that our first military victory was the Revolutionary War.

[SeeSharp]

I thought that our first military victory was the Revolutionary War.

Strictly speaking, the current political entity didn't exist until six years after that war ended.

[NonValueAdded]

A pivotal sea change in the early history of our country and a pre-cursor to the War of 1812.

I also find it ironic that Jefferson, the so-called founder of the Democratic Party, was the first to turn away from appeasement, and the Europeans (except for the Swedes) were all about paying tribute. Some things never change.

I would also say Trump found his inner Jefferson when he confronted the Rocket Man, also eschewing decades of appeasement and look what is about to happen.

Finally, I heartily recommend Kilmeade’s “Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War Than Changed American History.”

[DIRTYSECRET]

Read it. Shocking to know how Gibralter docked warships from both sides. Guess GB was neutral. Once they left port all bets were off.