Second Barbary War: US and Muslims fighting each other 200 years ago (middle east, March)

[Packard fan]

After the end of the war, the United States and European nations stopped their practice of paying tribute to the pirate states to forestall attacks on their shipping. It helped mark the beginning of the end of piracy in that region, which had been rampant in the days of Ottoman domination (16th–18th centuries). Within decades, European powers built ever more sophisticated and expensive ships which the Barbary pirates could not match in numbers or technology.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Barbary_War

For those posters who think the US needs to butt out of Middle Eastern drama; maybe they need to realize that we had to put the Barbary Pirates in their place so they'd leave US ships alone, 200 years ago.

[jetgraphics]

“We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, 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 who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
- - - Thomas Jefferson, Letter from the commissioners (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson) to John Jay, 28 March 1786, in Thomas Jefferson Travels: Selected Writings, 1784-1789, by Anthony Brandt, pp. 104-105.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

(Digest version : We consider all mankind as our friends. Their response : It is their right and duty to make war upon all infidels, and make slaves of all they could take as prisoners.)