Pirates! and Old Ironsides

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Yesterday, the Somali pirates finally tested the weakest US president in American history by taking one of our vessels. While the President paces the oval office hoping for a bailout since he intends to do nothing about this, let me take you back in time to the Jefferson administration.

Since the 14th century, the Barbary pirates of present day Tripoli have preyed upon shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. By 1793, a dozen American ships had been taken, their cargoes seized and their crews sold into slavery despite Jefferson's envoy in 1786 to Tripoli as Secretary of State in which he promised to pay $1 million annually to buy off the pirates.

When Jefferson was inaugurated, the Pasha of Tripoli demanded $225,000 ($1,088,763,657,000 in today's dollars) in tribute. Jefferson refused. The Pasha declared war on the United States, followed shortly by Algiers and Tunis. In August of 1801, the schooner USS Enterprise defeated a 14-gun Tripolian corsair in the first battle of the war. Jefferson commissioned six frigates to help aid US naval operations in the region, the USS Argus, USS Chesapeake, USS Constellation, USS Constitution, USS Enterprise, USS Intrepid, USS Philadelphia and USS Syren.

In 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led the Marine Corps in action to retake the USS Philadelphia which had been captured, which is what the "shores of Tripoli" references in the USMC anthem. He would later lead an overland force under General Eaton in 1805 overland to take Tunis, ending the first war.

After the war of 1812, we returned our sights to Tripoli. Now Commodore Decatur went back with the fleet and bombarded Algiers into submission (1815).

There have been no major interpolations in American shipping since then, until today. The issue is that these men are terrorists, Muslim pirates, who are in it for the money and the glory at the expense of the industrious. Not that there are not good Muslims in the world, but there are no good Muslims among the Tripolitanian pirates, their militancy evident in the brazen overtures with which they encountered an American freighter.

This morning, the intrepid crew of the Maersk Alabama retook their vessel and put the pirates adrift into a liferaft where they hold the captain hostage. What would I do if I were the president?

I would have immediately ordered the USS Constitution to set sail under escort for Northern Africa. She is the only ship in our navy that has sunk another vessel in ship to ship action and the only ship afloat in the world that has sunk another ship with cannon balls. Let her return as a symbol to let them show that we cannot and will not be intimidated. They cannot have forgotten Old Ironsides which sank five british warships in the war of 1812.

I think that one wooden sailing ship ought to be enough to patrol the waters off that coast and turn back these petulent pirates. Meanwhile, we have forces in the region sufficient to handle these ruffians. I would not tolerate such a brazen act of war.

I look forward in October to the opportunity to step aboard this vessel in Boston Yard. I encourage you to avail yourself of the same opportunity.

Keep faith with our fighting men. No aid or comfort to the enemy.