Historical Context

More than two hundred years ago, the United States ended its first war on terror, defeating the Barbary State of Tripoli. It did so using a combination of force and diplomacy. The Bush administration's decision to engage in diplomatic talks with Iran and Syria while sending two carrier groups to the Mediterranean bears an uncanny resemblance to events that brought about an end to the conflict with Tripoli.

America had been at war for four long years with Tripoli, one of the four Barbary States of North Africa that terrorized American shipping in the Mediterranean. As state sponsors of terrorism, the Barbary States demanded an annual tribute to allow Christian vessels to trade unmolested in the Mediterranean. America had refused to pay, and Tripoli had responded by declaring war, seizing American ships, and enslaving their crews.

In May 1804, President Thomas Jefferson awoke to learn that the U.S.S. Philadelphia, a 44-gun frigate, had run aground in the harbor of Tripoli and that all 307 of her crew were now prisoners of Yusuf Karamanli, the Bashaw of Tripoli. The Philadelphia disaster compelled Jefferson to change his strategy. On May 26, 1804, he called together his cabinet and asked them if he should authorize peace negotiations. Their answer was a unanimous, "yes."

Jefferson was a skilled diplomat and knew, however, that he would need to take action to compel Karamanli to sit at the negotiating table. So, after he had received approval to begin negotiations, he ordered more warships to the Mediterranean, and authorized General Eaton to proceed with an audacious plan to overthrow Yusuf Karamanli and install his brother Hamet on the throne.

Fast forward to the present and we can see that the Bush administration's recent actions are surprisingly similar to those taken by Jefferson. The Bush administration just sent two carrier groups to the region and appears to be open to engaging in clandestine activity within Iran. This last action was implied by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's response to a query from Senator Joseph Biden during Rice's Senate appearance in January. When asked if the U.S. planned to pursue Iran operatives into Syria or Iran Rice responded: "Obviously, the President isn't going to rule anything out to protect our troops, but the plan is to take down those networks in Iraq."

Rewind 202 years. Eaton led an army of more than five hundred men including eight U.S. Marines, from Alexandria, Egypt, across more than 500 miles of desert and attacked the pirate fortress of Derna, Tripoli. On April 26, 1805, Eaton's army stormed the fortress and raised the American flag.

After this victory, the Bashaw of Tripoli invited Jefferson's emissary, Colonel Tobias Lear, who had been George Washington's personal secretary, to his castle to negotiate an end to the war. The treaty was signed June 3, 1805.

Nine days later, under cover of darkness, Eaton and his men slipped quietly out of Derna and boarded the U.S.S. Constellation. As the coast of North Africa slipped below the horizon, Eaton sat down at his writing desk and penned a note to the American commodore: "Our peace with Tripoli is certainly more favorable — and, separately considered, more honorable than any peace obtained by any Christian nation with a Barbary regency at any period within a hundred years; but it might have been more favorable and more honorable."

As we hope for an end to America's second war on terror, it's worth asking if diplomacy and the dispatch of two carrier groups to the region will bring about an end to the war that rages in Iraq and threatens to spill over into Syria and Iran. After all, using force to bring about a negotiated settlement worked two hundred years ago.