In October of 1784 an American Naval vessel “The Besty” was taken by Barbary Pirates. This process ended with a full blown war in 1801 when an American Warship “The Philadelphia” was captured by Tripoli Pirates. In the end Admiral Stephan Decatur had to board and recapture the half sunken grounded Philadelphia and burn it so that the Tripoli Pirates could not refloat and use the vessel. $60,000 dollars was paid to retrieve the crew. The demands by the Tripoli Pirates included $1million dollars a year in “Tribute” over 15 years. The $60,000 dollars by the US Adminstration in 1805 to seek the release of the crew, described the payment as “Ransom” rather than “Tribute”.
The current lies and deceptions of the newly found/formed Republican Jihadists in Congress such as Lindsay Graham and others saying that “We never negotiate with terrorists!” is not only duplicitous but fully generated to seek political advantage no matter what the President might do. The fact of the matter is that President Dwight D. Eisenhower negotiated with the Russians in order to get our U-2 Pilot – Gary Francis Powers back…..which included removing missiles from Turkey and other areas adjacent to Eastern Block countries. As you might recall, our U-2 was shot down by Russian missiles. Ronald Wilson Reagan negotiated with Iran to support the Contras! The list goes on and on.
As we look back at the political strategy of Thomas Jefferson on the Tripoli/Barbary Pirates…..we have to think that history is now simply repeating itself. The actions of the Somali Pirates takes a old page from history. The actions of the Russians, using surrogate paid mercenaries and Special Forces to invade Ukraine, the attack on the infrastructure of Iraq in order bring down that government utilizes the very same strategy. These issues/tactics/strategies are not new. The messy solutions will continue today, much as they did back in 1801, in the first year of the Jefferson Administration. Jefferson’s political opponents used the same name calling demeaning tactics that John McCain and Lindsay Graham are using today. Far afield from anything near – “A loyal opposition!” Those days are so over! As the Republican Jihad continues unabated against President Obama and his Administration – the character of the President will be greatly tested, just as it was during the Administration of Jefferson. There will need to be a combination or a matrix of solutions to solve these same age old questions.
Let’s start with the repatriation of Bowe Bergdahl – the President will have to be strong enough to demand that Bergdahl be allowed to go home with a General Discharge and partial benefits….including education and healthcare. There also needs to be another Executive Order to the CIA to never remove the observation on all five traded terrorists. On Iraq, unlimited airstrikes by International forces on any troop movements by ISISL must be forthcoming. If the government of Iraq is to fall – it must be through there own democratic process. The Kurds in the north need to become Independent and find a long term negotiated peace with Turkey. Perhaps Turkey could annex the area in what they used to call “Protectorate Status” until physical security is maintained. The battles in the Ukraine need to be protracted in the Eastern Provences. The cost of life and treasure to Russia must be treated much as it was in Afghanistan. The end game hopeful outcome for the Russians should be considered to be – the same as was when they left Afghanistan!
As we draw closer to the 2014 elections, “The Donald Sterling Terror Duplicitousness” will continue unabated. The word of almost anyone in society is obviously lacking credibility. You say yes – then you say no! This is what the Tripoli/Barbary Pirates did in 1784! Nothing new under the sun. The half-truth demagogues will be out in mass – the closer we get to the November elections. What did the Eagles say: “You can’t hide your lying eyes!”. The verbal sins and deceptions will continue unabated! As you see some Republicans switch sides faster that Italian Soldiers at the end of World War II, trying to be everything to everyone – we should not and cannot be deceived for long. Bowe Bergdahl is certainly not Phillip Nolan – “the man without a country!” Bowe Bergdahl, if he was one of the thousands of Vietnam POW’s and MIA’s…….there wouldn’t even be a footnote in the national news. Since Bowe is currently considered “the last man out of Afghanistan”…sadly events prevent his simple relocation back to his small town roots and his family. Bowe Bergdahl is now considered in the same vein or category as Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox! Sad for him and sad for our country. Anyone who served five years in enemy hands may not deserve a “Get out of Jail Free Card” break – but certainly not being ostracized without a fair hearing and fully open forum. For those Republican Jihadist who continue their attacks with more half truths – hoping someone is going to buy their puke – our dream is that people do their own research and look into the facts instead. Look into the history and look into their hearts. Look carefully, and their is little doubt – you will see right through the rhetoric yes/no answers!
Our firm hope is that President Obama will attack those Isis pick-up trucks with impunity. Not because they are wrong or because they are Sunni’s or Shia – but because upsetting the apple cart in Iraq now is currently not cool or proper and endangers the entire world economy. We hope they are forced to pay the supreme price for their huberus! Thomas Jefferson Negotiated with Terrorists! But only to a point! Isn’t that where the Marine Corps Hymn came from? We may not need boots on the ground – but maybe in the air Mr. President?
It appears that not much has changed in 229 years:
In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy – when they enquired “concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury”, the ambassador replied:
“It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War
*We never liked those Tundra Pick-ups that much anyway! This whole thing is terribly frustrating to watch isn’t it? The latest Jihadist PR is that ISSL just executed 1700 Shia Army troopers. Come on US Navy……do your stuff…eh? It really doesn’t matter whether Maliki stays or goes….we need to move, if nothing else – but to send a message!
Flesh that thought out, skally! What contemporary lessons do you think that we should draw from what Wikipedia alleges to have been that ambassador’s 1785 reply — and to what breadth of individuals do they apply? Do go on.
Congress authorized ransom payments and prisoner exchanges with the Islamic terrorists with which Jefferson had to deal. I don’t see BHO getting the authorization of congress for his actions – he illegally keeps congress in the dark.
It applies to radical Islamic terrorists and they must be crushed – there will be collateral damage – get over it.
We’ve had a lot of shootings by right-wing white men recently. Do you also believe that they too must be crushed — though there will be collateral damage, and people should get over it.?
So in your view all right-wing white men should be targets – is that correct?
*If you simplify the argument: Corrective Action dictates that overwhelming force be excericised. Dust these suckers and make it quick. We can walk away anytime……we want. Make it a quick exit, but make the pain and anxiety endless!
Thanks for not wasting any more time on this lightweight, Greg. The above exchange is an excellent illustration of how people argue in the shallow end of the pool.
Whoops — sorry. Saw his comment before I saw yours.
No! Of course, not all! But — “collateral damage,” you know? Get over it.
Greg,
Just curious, outside of the bigot couple in LV, who I’m not sure I would say were right wing, but I sure wont argue that point either, what other “right wing shooters” are you talking about?
“You’re not sure that they were right wing”? WHAT DOES IT TAKE, Carl?
I had in mind the one in Pittsburgh, the one in Kentucky or Tennessee, the Isla Vista guy certainly supported — ah, let’s call them “traditional gender roles” — but I don’t have time to look them all up. You give me a complete list of recent shooters and I’ll tick off the ones whom I think qualify.
Don’t bother arguing about “recently” — it was a response to skally’s point, which is something that you might consider providing yourself.
*How far off the subject can you get and still think that Carlos Casteneda was from someplace other than Peru? Shooters, Creamed Cheese and Diabolic Steriods………hmmm. Hard to keep up with logic and arguments like that. Hey, maybe there is a generation gap. Perhaps Japanese cars will replace Detroit Iron and America will someday start to buy German Made cars. Of course if anyone of you actually had a brain….you would be an import dealer for Skoda.
Are you trying to imitate Zenger imitating you? If so, nice job!
*Nero fiddled….while Rome did what?
I don’t think of bigots like the LV shooters as being either right or left, just plain ass stupid and insane. Is that fair enough? Even those that I would consider to be right wing and perhaps extremist, thought they were whacked out and booted them very shortly after they opened their mouths and expressed their thoughts and ideas. At that point I don’t see them as right or left.
Bigotry by the way isn’t an exclusive to either right or left. If you want to argue that we can, but I’m willing to concede that there are idiots on both sides in that regard.
Eliot Rodger, was a very troubled narcissistic individual who never should have had access to firearms. His entitlement screed was certainly not something recognizable as right wing but one fully focused on himself and retribution on those who hadn’t loved and admired him.
You know, I wasn’t being argumentative Greg or setting you up, just asking which ones YOU were referring to. It really was a simple question that should have been a simple answer.
No, it’s not “fair enough,” Carl. Do you lay claim to the Gadsden Flag? Well, so do they. And the killer husband was kicked off because of a prior felony conviction, not for his ideology.
I’ll give you an example of a shooting that I’d have to “own” as being part of extreme left-wing that involved bigotry: the Long Island Railroad massacre of — when was it, the 90s? — where a Black man shot commuters on the train. So, if I own that one, you have to own shootings of both Jews and Arabs, not to mention other minorities, as being part of the extreme right-wing.
Rodger was an extreme misogynist. Which extreme end of the ideological spectrum supports that? (I am interested, though, in how you would have implemented whatever policy that would have denied Rodger access to firearms. Please, do elaborate!)
Look, if you can’t see fascism as part of the extreme right-wing, I don’t know how we could have a productive discussion. You may have successfully compartmentalized it in your mind as not part of the political spectrum, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to consider it anything other than right-wing. I guess that you could ask some skinheads about it.
Did you mean to say “right-wing” at the end of that second paragraph?
Yes I did, thanks. Will fix.
All I asked was which shootings you were speaking of Greg. Period.
I didn’t ask you to own any of them.
Simple question, that it appears you don’t have an answer for, other than the LV whachos, fair enough, I was just asking.
Greg,
Let me also clarify that I don’t believe that fascism belongs in the “far right” but libertarian thought and perhaps anarchist beliefs would.
Fascism has it’s own little universe of political thought. It combines the worst of group think and ultra nationalism usually with a dictatorship. It’s it’s own little flavor of hell on earth in my mind. I not the only one who thinks that either. That’s not “right” in my mind.
*We might add that the Germans prior to and during WWII had some ot the toughest guns laws in the world. Even the Brown Shirts had few firearms. The Gestapo, the SS and others however all had those loving Walther PPK’s, Lugers,Schmissers and K98’s to take down unarmed people like those in the Warsaw Ghetto. Remove the unarmed and then simply move in whole German Families, sometime even eating the food that was in the apartment or home. Those LV’s were just skin head that hadn’t been incarcerated yet. Anna think it is the food that the American people are given to eat. She thinks that the additives in our food cause mental disorders. She thinks all of those people should have been tested for elements of Soy Lecithin and 100 other contaminents in our food supply.
*The Walther P-38 was the one I was thinking of….most used by the Germans
in WWII.
Greg,
I failed to answer your question as to how the Eliot Rodger SHOULD have been prevented from obtaining and keeping firearms through the existing legal structure.
His family should have made sure that DOJ knew he was unstable, first and foremost family knows. There is a method for doing this and placing a question mark in the DOJ system. His Dr. probably should have been more proactive as well.
The police should have actually done their jobs when they were asked to do the welfare check. Once again they FAILED miserably in not investigating and failed in their due diligence and responsibility. They knew about the posts on the internet and FAILED to even look into them. They also chose NOT to look at the database of firearms owners that DOJ keeps on all of use who have purchased firearms since the system was started.
They would have easily found that not only had he purchased the firearms AND was under care by a shrink AND thought to be a danger, which should have set off all kinds of bells and whistles in their heads. That should have facilitated a greater search for the weapons and more questions about his welfare. The PD has stated they didn’t have cause to 5150 him, but that’s total BS under the law. The warnings they received were enough justification under the law. They failed miserably and there isn’t a damn thing that can be done about it now except to tell the story of how badly they failed the public trust and hope others will learn from their complete lack of professional responsibility.
Just like Patrick Purdy this guy never should have had legal access, NEVER. The laws are already in place, they simply didn’t get used by the professionals that the public puts their trust in. The law didn’t fail, the law keepers failed.
Of course in this particular situation his firearms were not the only weapons he used. Confiscation of his firearms without his further treatment might not have saved everyone hurt and killed.