It's been a busy day so far, so I haven't had much time to look at President Obama's speech until now. My first take after reading it is that it appears to offer all of the factions something to praise and something to criticize, which probably means it was a pretty good speech. I'm sure I'll have more, but I'll just mention this minor detail for now.
Was it really wise to bring up the Treaty of Tripoli? After all, the only reason it occurred was because muslim pirates from Tripoli and the other Barbary Coast states were ransoming and enslaving American sailors. Here's a little background to that:
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.
Oh my, that's a little inconvenient to bring up today. I know, I know, the past is the past. Or is it?
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