War and the Barbary Pirates

©Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, July 30, 2006

War is an awful thing.  It is as near to being in Hell as anyone can come without entering the Infernal Regions.  The great irony of war is that those who engage in its acts, both up close and personal or from the planning table, commit evil, even if their purposes and objectives are right and virtuous.  The troops engaged in the conflict, on the ground, at sea, or in the air, are in the midst of and often times the deliverers of death and destruction. The field commanders, the generals in their headquarters, and the politicians at their desks, who direct the conflict and are compelled by the exigencies of the situations to send men (and women) into combat, are “killers” not only of the forces of the enemy, but of their own troops as well, not to mention the collateral damage of dead civilians who may have had the misfortune to be in the way.   While the motive for this expenditure of human life may be very justified, the individuals who, by duty, are bound to order or exact its payment must often reflect, in the dark hours of the soul, upon the terrible costs of their actions.  Such is the great price paid by the military and civilian leaders who must do this detestable work to keep us free.  What a weight this is to bear.  No honor, no salary, no recompense of nation is sufficient to compensate for this terrible responsibility.  We owe these people our respect and, may I venture, our prayers.

All of that being true, we realize that war is sometimes necessary.  My friend, Jim Wooten, associate editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution in his blog in the paper, recently directed a question to the liberals as to under what circumstances, short of an actual invasion of our country, would they “take up arms” or, in actuality, support the use of national military power.

While I cannot speak for the liberals, I feel that the use of military force should be invoked only when there is a “clear and present danger” to the national security of the United States or to the security of one of our allies that, short of our intervention, would result, ultimately, in a danger to us.  This is my rationale for war.

We know that on September 11, 2001 we were attacked by a new type of enemy.  Al-Qaeda is not a nation.  Rather, it is an organization not totally unlike the Barbary Pirates (a group of pirates operating out of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, who preyed upon shipping in the early 19^th century).  Our leaders tell us that we are in a “war” against “terrorism.”  Strangely, they can point to no “declaration” of war by the Congress, just a series of “resolutions” authorizing the use of military power…again, a similarity with the Barbary Pirate episode in our history.

I am convinced that the elements of war do not change, whether one is at war with a nation or an organization.  The only way to prevail in a war is to inflict a sufficient number of casualties and a sufficient amount of damage to the enemy to convince them that their continue participation in the war is not in their interest or to totally destroy their ability to exist as a nation (e.g., Nazi Germany) or as an organization (e.g., the Barbary Pirates). 

In the case of the Barbary Pirates, American naval forces and U. S. Marines attacked the pirate strong holds in Tripoli and other areas of North Africa.  Ultimately the pirates were defeated when Americans use some of the pirate’s own tactics against them and made life so rough for the North Africans, who had been allowing the pirates to run rampant, that they began to reign in their illicit activities.

Maybe there is a lesson there somewhere!