We’ve been here before.

Someone I know in LJ land put up a post Monday. In that post he tries to assert the following:

That of course is ridiculous. Washington would have no sooner avoided Iraq when it comes to taking the fight to the enemy than he would have avoided his 1775 invasion of (British owned) Canada. As to trying to imply our founders wouldn’t have approved Iraq the people trying to take that tack fail to recognize we’ve already done this before. A glimpse in the history of my beloved Corps shows us that history is repeating itself.

Am I talking of when America pushed back fascism in WWII? No. Am I talking about when the nation ventured to Cuba, Asia and the South Seas in the Spanish-American war? No, even further back. We’re going to the the time period of 1799-1805, right after the founding of our nation. For you see the answer is there for us Marines. It’s there in our weapons (the Mameluke Sword), in our war records (the campaign of Lt. Presley O’Bannon), even in our song (”to the shores of Tripoli”).

One of the main pillars of liberalism is “Blame America First!” Thing is back then the Islamic world barely knew we even existed, none of the usual excuses for Islamic terror against America had been thought up yet. Of course that didn’t stop the “religion of peace” from attacking us, stealing our stuff, killing American civilians on the high seas and taking others as slaves. Thomas Jefferson who was at the time ambassador to France went to London to meet Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja (yeah, all of that was his name) who was the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. Take note of Jefferson cause he’ll become relevant again soon. Now Jefferson asked Haji Adja why they were attacking our ships when there had been to provocation. Adja’s answer is the same thing muj have been spouting since the pirates of Mednia first started their raping and pillaging:

Sound familiar?

So we’ve got our first similarities between the Barbary Wars and the War on Terror:

• Islamic terrorists (Barbary Pirates, Al Qaeda)
• Killing American civilians.
• Using the Koran to justify their atrocities.
• Both are “stateless” groups.

Now let’s continue our history lesson shall we? That Jefferson fellow, he goes and gets himself elected president. If one is to look into the words and actions of Jefferson it becomes clear that for his day, Tom…was a liberal. So as raids increased and more an more Americans were taken as slaves by the Moors, Congress under Jefferson tried to do what liberals do best in the face of fascism, appeasement. They tried to pay ransom to the Moors in exchange for the freedom of captured American sailors. As is natural in such situations, no amount of appeasement was enough.

The Barbary Pirates during this time had veritable carte blance. They engaged in their piracy all over the Mediterranean, the west coast of Africa even clear up the western coast of Europe to Iceland. It should also be noted that the Barbary pirates didn’t call themselves pirates, they called themselves mujahideen (strugglers in the cause of Islam). Gee, isn’t there another group that calls themselves that today? So finally as appeasement is becoming more and more difficult and less and less effective Jefferson tried to get the nations to Europe to join a coalition to do something about it, they refused. Many were also trying to appease them (paying tribute) with some even enabling them (Portugal ending it’s blockade of the Straight of Gibraltar thus allowing the Berbers free access to the Atlantic). Thus the similarities continue:

• Liberals attempting to appease Islamic animals.
• Mujahideen doing it for “allah”.
• Spineless Europe trying to appease and even enabling Islamic terror.

But we’re just getting going folks! So, Jefferson sends the newly created US Navy to blockade Tripoli Harbor and “send a message” to message to the other Berber factions. Like most liberal military expeditions, it was a glorious failure. They managed to run their flagship the USS Philadelphia aground where it was promptly captured and it’s crew of 300 made slaves of the Pasha. How about that message eh? “The US is weak and incompetent”, message received. Paniced, Jefferson then did what again liberals do in such situations. He turned to special ops to try and save his rear end and avoid a public relations nightmare. Well they didn’t really have spec ops in those days but it was a secret mission. He sent William Eaton to find the guy the Pasha had stolen power from, a man named Hamet who was living in exile in Egypt and use him to overthrow the Pasha. But yet again liberism would rear it’s ugly head. Jefferson was growing tired of the war that had been declared on us and sought to cut and run. He pulled Eaton’s funding and men. Despite this Eaton still found Hamet, convined him to join, hired a bunch of mercs and together with a squad of Marines under OBannon marched 600 miles across the desert and took Tripoli. The defeated Pasha presented OBannon with the Mameluke Sword which is still worn by Marine officers to this day. So we’ve got even more similarities:

• US engages in a foreign war to end a threat of Islamic terror.
• Liberals screw up a fight against Islamists.
• Liberals turn coward after a very short time and then begin to undermine said war in an attempt to cut and run.
• US Marines get the job done in spite of the American left!

History repeats itself. Only this time, they’re hoping they can undermine it before our troops secure victory. Let’s see if this post will receive that so far elusive VSOA (Vixen Seal Of Approval).