President Trump & Qasem Soleimani -- Lessons from the U.S. Showdown with the Barbary Pirates

Recommendable!

It is a little bit troubling that John Yoo did not mention Stephen Decatur at all in his article. A surprising oversight?

Don't forget: "Although history remembers them as outlaws, the Barbary pirates were in fact autonomous regions — Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis — within the Ottoman Empire, joined by an independent nation, Morocco. Their leaders attacked the shipping of other nations, seized cargos and ships, and sold captured sailors into slavery. Since the days of the Continental Congress, the United States had essentially paid bribes, in the form of tribute (amounting to $10 million under Washington and Adams), to the Barbary nations to allow American shipping to proceed unhindered. Jefferson’s accession to the presidency coincided with demands for higher payments and the impressment of a U.S. Navy frigate, the USS George Washington, by the Dey of Algiers as a courier vessel. Jefferson had long disliked the policy of paying tribute."

Bravo Thomas Jefferson!

President Trump & Qasem Soleimani -- Lessons from the U.S. Showdown with the Barbary Pirates | National Review: While Donald Trump and Thomas Jefferson may be very different presidents, they both drew on constitutional authority to protect American interests abroad.