A little History

[Big N' Blue]

Here is a little history. Including how the Marine Corps term ‘Leatherneck’ came to be ….... Most Americans are unaware of the fact that over two hundred years ago, the United States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the charge!


At the height of the eighteenth century, Muslim pirates were the terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic. They attacked every ship in sight, and held the crews for exorbitant ransoms. Those taken hostage were subjected to barbaric treatment and wrote heart breaking letters home, begging their government and family members to pay whatever their Mohammedan captors demanded.

These extortionists of the high seas represented the Islamic nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers – collectively referred to as the Barbary Coast – and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American Republic.

Before the Revolutionary War, U.S. merchant ships had been under the protection of Great Britain. When the U.S. declared its independence and entered into war, the ships of the United States were protected by France. However, once the war was won, America had to protect its own fleets. Thus, the birth of the U.S. Navy.

Beginning in1784, seventeen years before he would become president, Thomas Jefferson became America’s Minister to France. That same year, the U.S. Congress sought to appease its Muslim adversaries by following in the footsteps of European nations who paid bribes to the Barbary States, rather than engaging them in war.

In July of 1785, Algerian pirates captured American ships, and the Dey of Algiers demanded an unheard-of ransom of $60,000. It was a plain and simple case of extortion, and Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to any further payments. Instead, he proposed to Congress the formation of a coalition of allied nations who together could force the Islamic states into peace. A disinterested Congress decided to pay the ransom.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Great Britain to ask by what right his nation attacked American ships and enslaved American citizens, and why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

The two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, 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 (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Despite this stunning admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim nations, as well as the objections of many notable American leaders, including George Washington, who warned that caving in was both wrong and would only further embolden the enemy, for the following fifteen years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to over twenty percent of the United States government annual revenues in 1800.

Jefferson was disgusted. Shortly after his being sworn in as the third President of the United States in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli sent him a note demanding the immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year forthcoming. That changed everything.

Jefferson let the Pasha know, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his demand. The Pasha responded by cutting down the flagpole at the American consulate and declared war on the United States.
Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers immediately followed suit.

Jefferson, until now, had been against America raising a naval force for anything beyond coastal defense, but having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for long enough, decided that it was finally time to meet force with force.

He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean and taught the Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson he hoped they would never forget. Congress authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli and to “cause to be done all other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify”.

When Algiers and Tunis, who were both accustomed to American cowardice* and acquiescence, saw the newly independent United States had both the will and the might to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to Tripoli.

*Just as they see us under our present government!!
The war with Tripoli lasted for four more years, and raged up again in 1815. The bravery of the U.S. Marine Corps in these wars led to the line “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn, They would forever be known as “leathernecks” for the leather collars of their uniforms, designed to prevent their heads from being cut off by the Muslim scimitars when boarding enemy ships.

Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply. America had a tradition of religious tolerance, the fact that Jefferson, himself, had co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen. A religion based on supremacism, whose holy book not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers was unacceptable to him. His greatest fear was that someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even greater threat to the United States.

Any doubts, just Google Thomas Jefferson vs the Muslim World

[Old dog]

that was a good read!!! thanks david

[bmattison]

It is amazing how many people don't know that story! If they taught that history lesson in school maybe the world would be in a different place. Thank you for the post.

[Varminator]

Oh My God!! It wasn't something "The West" (America) did to them First!!!!!

This is a "Holy War" and we should call it that!!

With all this calamity going on in the World, we should lock down and clean up the inside and Bomb the Hell out of them on the outside!!! JMO!! Gross Negligence from this President, has put this Nation in danger from every angle!

[BAR BAR 2]

It amazes me when the liberal idiots these days try to act sympathetic to this so called religion of peace and act like we threw the first punch. Just as their man said way back when, their bible (quran) says they are to make slaves of, or kill anyone who is not like them. The excuse makers these days should all be sent over there to see just exactly what they are trying to defend. I can't understand why our government even lets them across our border, but then, they do alot of stuff that makes absolutely no sense.


Tex

[mike martell]

It amazes me when the liberal idiots these days try to act sympathetic to this so called religion of peace and act like we threw the first punch.
Tex

This didn't all start with that Cowboy from Texas, George W. Bush throwing the first punch?





Huh??????

[Grzyadms4x4]

No, but stealing, er, spending trillions of OUR GRANDCHILDREN'S un-earned tax dollars fighting a group of people not much larger than a bunch of street gangs is insane and immoral. Land of the brave, starting to wonder... Seems to me like we are turning into a bunch of scaredy cats. But lets be real. I think most of us and most Americans realize that corporations control our government. So WHO is really wanting us to fight over there to "protect American "interest""?

[BAR BAR 2]

No, but stealing, er, spending trillions of OUR GRANDCHILDREN'S un-earned tax dollars fighting a group of people not much larger than a bunch of street gangs is insane and immoral. Land of the brave, starting to wonder... Seems to me like we are turning into a bunch of scaredy cats. But lets be real. I think most of us and most Americans realize that corporations control our government. So WHO is really wanting us to fight over there to "protect American "interest""?

Some say it is all about the oil and in a way, I guess it is. We have more oil under American soil than all of the middle eastern countries combined, but it really isn't the actual oil and eventhough some major corporations like Haliburton profit immensely, it really isn't them behind us being there either. It is because of the bankers that we are there.

Back when American companies discovered oil under the middle east and before we realized we had such large reserves here, we set the Saudi Royal Family up to be in power and we made deals that middle east oil would only be traded in US Dollars. Because of this, US bankers knew they had an ace in the hole to do pretty much as they pleased, because the world's economy's could not/cannot function without energy. By insuring that that was though to be the world's largest oil reserves could only be traded in dollars, our monetary system was set up to be the strongest in the world.

The Bankers in this country then started to take many unnecessary and sometimes criminal risk with our financial system. Because of those risks, we are now at a point where we have to continue protecting the oil over there to insure that it will continue to be traded in the US Dollar. If that status is ever lost, our dollar can and will crash, which will cause our economy to crash.

In 1929, the US economy was considerably smaller than it is now and the Great Depression will look like nothing more than a bump in the road compared to what a crash today would look like. And with the way that the economies of other countries are so intertwined with ours, the crash of the US Dollar would drag down the financial systems of other countries as well. When the financial systems crash, virtually every other industry would feel it as well.

Bankers have been betting using the petrodollar as their ante for several decades and we are just about to the point where several large countries are going to call the bet and when they do we will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. When the US Government stepped in to save the banks and GM a few years ago, they said they had to because they were too big to let them fail. Many people said to let them fail and I was one of them. The situation the bankers have got us into with the US Dollar and Mideast oil makes that other stuff look like a Monoply game among a bunch of third graders. Not only are they trying to keep the US economy afloat, they are also trying like heck to keep their own asses out of a major sling.

The US people have a very legitimate right to be pissed, but it is the banker's feet we should be holding to the fire.


Tex

[Big N' Blue]

You nailed it Tex.

[Old dog]

most people don't look past the big oil company when they pay up the wazzoo for gas. they think its the oil company that is ripping them off and when I tell them that its the bankers and big government they just roll their eyes. I say leter crash and we will be forced to rebuild with our own oil and a crop of youngsters that actually have to work and sacrifice to get ahead. the older grandparents aren't around to tell the young about going with out anymore and America has become lazy and complacent in my opinion.p.s. I am going to sue walt Disney for not telling me that black beard and hook were muslims! my money problems will be a thing of the past when the suit settles lmao