Best of Bloggers 2006 Part Two

On New Year's Day we began our look back at some of the stories and events which stood out among fellow bloggers at the close of 2006.

In reading all the submissions of selected posts from Mike's America's online friends a tapestry of common themes became readily apparent. The job therefore, was to weave those threads into a narrative tapestry. A focus on history seemed the most logical starting point and that's the point where I once again take up the WordLoom:

In the previous post we began by looking at large events like the death of Abraham Lincoln, Pearl Harbor Day and September 11th. From those events, with their focus on tragedy and war, we transitioned to another great historical figure close to the heart of Mike's America: President Reagan.

But history get's even more personal than a President, even if it's one with whom you briefly shared a time and place.

Gazing at the Flag reminds us that "History is Our Stories ~ A Remarkable American" as she recalls the story of her Grandfather, born on September 17th, the same day as the U.S. Constitution as well as someone else my readers may have come to know (guess who?). Gazing says:"Each year when September 17 rolls around, I am thankful for our Constitution and I am thankful for him." We learn from her most personal history that Gazing inherited her love of flag and country from him:

[H]e loved the flag. He flew the flag on every holiday that called for it. The last home he bought was across the street from a grade school. I thought it was an odd place to purchase a retirement home and asked him about it. He got the twinkle in his eye and said, "Most days I can watch the flag flying over there. That gives me peace in my heart." He made me promise that when I owned my own home I would put up a flag pole and fly the flag. I kept that promise - you can see it at the top of the blog.

Maybe it's something to do with our common birthday, but I feel exactly the same way as her Grandfather.

Islam: A History of Violence

Islam is a big topic for many of us endeavoring to understand the nature of the threat we face and work towards making our nation and the world a better place with peace, freedom and justice as the highest ideals.

As we've seen, there is confusion in our country and the world on the nature of radical Islam. Always on Watch, who we count on for keeping on top of American-Islamic issues, and Gazing at the Flag both cited an article by esteemed Middle East and terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares (bio) entitled "THE CALIPH-STROPHIC DEBATE" focusing on radical Islam's goal of creating a new global Caliphate (in other words, world domination by Islamic fascists). Phares boils down the confusion in American and Western political thought in one paragraph:

It seems that the US is having a hard time winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims, but an equally serious problem can be observed in the intellectual circles of America where some have had a difficulty coming to terms with the terminology of the War of Ideas. If the educated elite of the United States is incapable of identifying the ideology and the strategy of the Jihadists five years after 9/11, we not only have a problem with handling the War in Iraq, but also with the future of American national security as a whole.

Multiculturalism, delusion, Bush hatred and political correctness have all conspired to draw a veil, or perhaps a Burka, over much of American political thought where Islam is concerned.

With that in mind, we return again to our primary theme thus far: History.

Like our New Year's look back, history is a guide to where we have been so we can move forward in a more sure-footed manner. One of the best discourses on the history of Islam's conflict with the United States is offered by our own Wordsmith who this past July subtitled this post: "America's First War with Islamic Terror." For anyone wishing a better foundation for understanding the historical roots of the current problem, here's a read that is recommended in it's entirety.

Wordsmith begins with an honest reflection of the nature of danger of the Caliphate as it crept ever closer to the heart of Europe before the Crusades repelled it:

These days, many of our current and future generations are raised on the Howard Zinn version of American history. It's been described as brilliant scholarship by Bill Bennett, but also horribly skewed and lopsided in its depiction of America, slanting an unfairly negative impression upon the reader. Political correctness and multiculturalism has made it popular to malign the Crusades as a war of pillaging and murder, instigated by the Christians. White Europeans are made out to be imperialistic, racist, slave-owning societies. Swept under the rug of consciousness, is the fact that it was in the West, where the first anti-slavery movement began. And it was started by Christians. And as for the Crusades, according to Thomas Madden, they were in every way, defensive wars, waged as a response to more than four centuries of Muslim aggression; and were no more offensive than was the American-led invasion of Normandy.

We often hear of "western imperialism" and America's deep sin of slavery and racism. But how often is it noted that the institution of slavery was not exclusive to the United States of America? The slave trade was engaged in all four corners of the globe, throughout the torrid history of mankind. It is estimated that Muslims enslaved up to 1.25 million Europeans and Christians over a period of centuries. And even to this day, the slave trade has not been completely eradicated in the Arab world. When the Arabian Peninsula became the penultimate region to abolish slavery in 1962, a quarter of a million slaves were said to still exist in Saudi Arabia, years later.1

Muslim expansion was always achieved through the business end of a sword. By the 8th century, two-thirds of the Christian world was conquered by Islamists. This included Palestine, Syria, Egypt, all of Christian North Africa, and Spain.

He traces America's first confrontation to Islam back to the birth of our Republic and the disagreeable policy of paying "tribute" to Muslim pirates, working on behalf of their quasi-governments, for the right of American ships to sail unmolested in the waters of the Mediterranean near what was then called the "Barbary Coast."

An Axis of Evil

Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were the North African seaports that came to comprise "the Barbary States". It became their habit to terrorize ships along the Mediterranean, and even further on. They kidnapped, murdered, ransomed, and enslaved merchant ships with impunity. If not sold into slavery or ransomed, Christian sailors could find themselves rotting away on a diet of starvation in the dungeons of the Pirate States.

According to Joshua E. London, "Piracy was deemed an acceptable and important component of the al-jihad fil'bahr, or the holy war at sea, and the ta'ifa, or community, of seamen became integral to the Muslim struggle with Christendom."

Bill Bennett, in his new book, "America, the Last Best Hope", describes it this way:
The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered 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.

Joshua E. London's description of the meeting in his book:
"The response was unnerving. As Adams and Jefferson later reported to the Continental Congress...The Americans now had two choices: pay tribute or fight the pirates."Adams cautioned Jefferson, "We ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight them forever,"4

Prophetic words, perhaps?

No kidding!

Appeasement is Not the Answer

Once America began paying ransom for hostages, and tributes to Barbary Corsairs, things only intensified and worsened. The U.S. now found itself having to pay other States along the Barbary Coast, besides the ones who initially began the attack campaigns in 1783 and 1784.

By the time Thomas Jefferson took office as America's 3rd President, the United States had paid out 2 million to the Barbary States. At the time, that amounted to a fifth of our 10 million federal income.

Of course, there was also devious self-interest in allowing this "cozy cartel" to continue, unmolested:

"British, French, and Dutch ships could sail the waters with impunity, while relying [on] corsairs ... to harrass the shipping of their competitors. This cunning arrangement allowed British and French merchantment to take a substantial proportion of the Mediterranean trade...."Upon viewing the Americans' weakness, the other Barbary States stepped up their blackmail demands."7

So the states of Europe payed to play with the Islamic fanatics for financial gain. Translate that to today's European scandal of violating sanctions regarding Saddam's Iraq. History repeats itself again.

On December 14, 1799, one of the greatest Americans who ever lived passed away: George Washington. Upon receiving news of his death, the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf, sent word to President John Adams that custom demanded that when a great leader dies from a tributary state, which it regarded the U.S. as being, a tribute-gift must be made to the Sultan of Tripoli. Yusuf's estimate of Washington's value was in the amount of $10,000.
...
By the spring of 1801, when Yusuf still did not receive his monetary "gift" from the U.S. for the death of George Washington, he sent for the U.S. consul to be brought before him. After making the consul kiss his hand, the Pasha proclaimed that the annual tribute that the U.S. was to pay Tripoli, would now be raised in the amount of $250,000; plus $25,000 in goods of his choice. Refusal to pay up would be taken as an act of war.

So why had America not paid up? Because by 1801, the Pasha was now dealing with President Thomas Jefferson....and the peace-loving Jefferson, itching for war for the past 17 years, was having no more of this nonsense.

"Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute"

Tributes came to an end. The Pasha of Tripoli became enraged. In 1801, May 10th, war was declared by Tripoli, in what has become known as "The Tripolitan War" or the "Barbary Wars". Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis subsequently joined in on declaring war against the U.S. "Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute", became the slogan of the day, in the U.S.

And in answer to this declaration of war, President Jefferson did what so many Presidents since then have done: HE SENT IN THE U.S. MARINES! Problem solved!

If you've ever wondered why the Marine Corps Hymn opens with the words "From the halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli" You have your answer. U.S. Marines were the first U.S. forces to defend America on foreign soil by defeating the Pasha at Tripoli in what is now Libya.

We'll continue again later with more recent examinations of Islam and how it impacts American society.

Stay tuned!