The first American Crisis in the Middle East
By Aaron Mannes
I was pleased to also contribute to the latest issue of the Journal of International Security Affairs, along with my co-CTbloggers Olivier Guitta (who wrote on trans-Atlantic relations) and Walid Phares (who wrote an excellent article entitled, "Future Terrorism: Mutant Jihads.")
My contribution was a review of Joshua London's Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation. London's book describes this first U.S. engagement with the Middle East. Although the events took place two centuries ago, the many parallels between the war with the Barbary pirates and today's war on terror are uncanny.
Here's an excerpt:
Past as prologue
By Aaron Mannes
Joshua E. London, Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation (Hobocken, NJ: J.W. Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2005), 276pp., $24.95.
Faced with a choice of appeasing hostage-taking Middle Eastern despots or overturning the international order, the United States hems and haws as its prestige wanes—until finally an outraged American public demands action. The European powers watch carefully, and maneuver to gain their own advantage. After marginal pinprick strikes, American forces mount a major campaign, receive rapid capitulation, and predictably fail to press their advantage.
The year was 1804.