America's first taste of Islamic Terrorism?

Question

Why are we still playing with them?

America was struck with its first mega-terror attack
by jihadists. In the fall of 1793, the Algerians
seized 11 U.S. merchant ships and enslaved more than
100 Americans.

When word of the attack reached New York, the stock
market crashed. Voyages were canceled in every major
port. Seamen were thrown out of work. Ship suppliers
went out of business. What Sept. 11 did to the U.S.
economy in 2001, the mass shipjacking of 1793 did to
the fledgling U.S. economy in that year.

Accordingly, it took the U.S. Congress only four
months to decide to build a fleet of warships.

But even then, Congress didn't choose war, as
Jefferson prescribed. Instead, while building what
would become the U.S. Navy, Congress sent diplomats to
reason with the Algerians. The U.S. ended up paying
close to $1 million and giving the pasha of Algiers a
new warship, "The Crescent," to win release of 85
surviving American hostages.

It wasn't until 1801, under the presidency of
Jefferson, that the U.S. engaged in what became a
four-year war against Tripoli. And it wasn't until
1830, when France occupied Algiers, and later Tunisia
and Morocco, that the terrorism on the high seas
finally ended.

France didn't leave North Africa until 1962 ¬ and it
quickly became a major base of terrorism once again.

What's the moral of the story? Appeasement never
works. Jefferson saw it. Sept. 11 was hardly the
beginning. The war in which we fight today is the
longest conflict in human history. It's time to learn
from history, not repeat its mistakes.

Answer 1

Isilamic terror if thats what you want to call it.

Answer 2

What rubbish, events of 1793 cannot be classed as Mega-terror attacks, it was Piracy.

11 wooden ships (with limited cargo capacity) + 100 sailors = 9 sailors per ship??

Would you care to post more evidence to back up your claims??

As the American War of the Revolution took place from 1775 to 1783, your so-called American Stock exchange was in its infancy, and bears no resemblence to the trade carried on today.

The fledgling United States of America was still virtually small colonies of white European settlers, who settled along the major rivers and coasts with thousands of miles of hostile territory between them.

So you are claiming all trade ceased to exsist because of events in Algeria, (not exactly known for their large ocean going navies).

You are trying to twist history to fit your demented theories, if their was going to be a jihad against people back then the Arab nations would have been looking to take over mainland Europe as it was more near to them, their tradition and history dictates their mentality by recording the movements of the Islamic warrior Moors up as far as Russia and through Spain, Italy into western Europe.

Answer 3

Never does a thing make me grimace more than the liberals fondness for quoting Jefferson; they do so in order to slam America's current foreign policy.

Many libs simply cannot come to terms with the fact life is, and always has been, a perilous venture. Maybe this is due in part that a lot of them have never known a moment of violence in their lives and therefore take for granted America's sovereignty.