In BHO's speech from Cairo the other day he stated that a Muslim nation was the first to recognize the US in the Treaty of Tripoli.
What he neglected to say was that the treaty was made because the US had to make protection payments to the Barbary pirates to prevent them from hijacking our ships. (We didn't have a navy at the time so we were forced to pay tribute to the Muslims.) The treaty went south when the Pasha of Tripoli demanded an increase in payments to Thomas Jefferson. This led to the First Barbary War in 1801 and the inclusion of that "shores of Tripoli" line in the Marine Hymn.
BHO's choice of this particular piece of history seems ironic.
No comments:
Post a Comment