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Posted by: nostalgia 7 months, 3 weeks ago

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nostalgia7 months, 3 weeks ago

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I heard a discussion on this today
As a law enforcement problem, the pirates can get life in prison!
We'll get to support them for their lifetime!

Jefferson and the Barbary pirates:

Paying the ransom would only lead to further demands, Jefferson argued in letters to future presidents John Adams, then America's minister to Great Britain, and James Monroe, then a member of Congress. As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, "I acknolege [sic] I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro' the medium of war." Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates, Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: "The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . . Every national citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." "From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their tenaciousness of their money," Jefferson added in a December 26, 1786, letter to the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles, "it will be more easy to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to bribe them."

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_...

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  flyonthewallzz7 months, 3 weeks ago
  
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  If my memory serves me correctly Jefferson did for a time pay out 20% of our treasury to those dudes.
  A lot of Atheists like to quote from the "Treaty of Tripoli", but if you read it towards the end there is a long list of bling described for the tribute.
  
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