'From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli'

I know that all of you recognize the first line of the Marine Corps (pronounced “core,” Mr. President) Hymn. But did you ever wonder what the shores of Tripoli had to do with it?

Actually, it has quite a lot.

A few centuries ago there was a band of cutthroats operating in that part of the world who became known collectively as the Barbary Pirates, the Barbary Corsairs or the Ottoman Corsairs. They were based primarily in Tunisia, Algiers and Tripoli and operated mainly in the Mediterranean along Africa’s Atlantic coast and even South America.

They’d even been known to attack coastal villages in Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland and even as far north as Iceland.

One of their main industries was to capture Christians to become slaves in the Islamic nations in North Africa and the Middle East. It was estimated that they captured and sold close to a million from the 16th through the 19th century.

Though their power and territory diminished somewhat with the growing muscle of the European navel fleets, they were never the less strong enough to demand tribute from nations whose ships sailed through the waters they controlled.

America was among the nations who paid tribute, and when Thomas Jefferson came to power in 1801 the Turkish Pasha was demanding that America increase the tribute they paid.

Well to make a long story short, Jefferson and America had had enough. He sent the marines to the shores of Tripoli and needless to say the Marines landed and the situation was soon well in hand.

Today we are again faced with Muslim pirates who run around the coast of Africa in glorified johnboats and take down ships a thousand times their size.

Recently they also took down a yacht with four Americans aboard who they murdered in cold blood.

How long is the world going to put up with this ridiculous band of rag-tag dope heads? They couldn’t take down a canoe if it was armed with just one Barrett .50 caliber rifle capable of shooting a hole in their boat from a mile away.

Americans have died, American shipping is in danger and it’s time for somebody in Washington, D.C. to get their head out of their posteriors and do something about it.

If it were up to me, I’d send in the Marines again. We know where these scumbags hang out; just let the Corps (again, that’s pronounced “core,” Mr. President) go in and take them down, and I mean all the way down.

When are we going to stop bringing a kitchen knife to a gunfight?

When are we going to have just one politician who has the testicles to stand up and defend the United States of America?

When is somebody going to say, “Damn the political correctness, full speed ahead!"

Mr. President, instead of worrying about men being able to marry men and women being able to marry women, I think it’s time for you and your Ivy League administration to face the facts.

There are people out there who will murder Americans at the drop of a fez, and it’s well past time that you took it serious and started doing something about it.

These African pirates would be a great place to start.

Just tell the Marine Corps Commandant, (once again, that’s pronounced “core,” Mr. President.) Just tell him what you want. Don’t tell him how to do it, just tell him to go destroy those pirates and then get back out of his way.

Would you like to send a “real” message to the world, Mr. President?

You’d be surprised what could be accomplished when you leave it to the pros.