GROUND ZERO, New York City, Mar. 7--The Beast of Terror isn't a new foe.  He's been around since the dawn of time, and America's been fighting him unilaterally for about as long as our nation has been formed.
       Americans and global citizens who think President George Bush's attitude toward Saddam Hussein is "new and different" need a lesson in history.  President Bush is following a long history of American will power to stand up to Terrorism when other nations stick their heads in the sand and pay such Terrorists tribute.

       Last night, for example, President Bush told a press conference that he had a Constitutional responsibility to protect the American people from Terrorism.   He added that he didn't need permission from the "world" to act out that duty.  What he didn't say was that he was walking in Thomas Jefferson's footprints, and his actions were a carbon copy of Jefferson's 199 years ago.
      In 1804 Jefferson launched a "war" against the Barbary Pirates.  They were the world's "Terrorists" of their time, forcing Europe and America to bow to their demands or suffer brutal consequences.

       As America was gestating into a nation, Terrorism was already gnawing big chunks out our underbelly. The Terrorists were like hungry seals, biting just the belly out of the fat tuna and leaving the rest. The meanest of them were the Barbary Coast Pirates, located in the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco and Algiers.
        European and American ships came under attack by them constantly.  To avoid the terror of having ships sunk or citizens put in prison and tortured, tribute was paid to appease the Pirates.   It was simple extortion, a common ploy of any Terrorist.  "Pay me or I'll kill you and your children."
       The Barbary Coast Terrorists used the same Tools of Terror the hijackers did on Nine Eleven--Fear, Intimidation and Complacency. 

       Prior to America's independence, England helped pay the extortion money to protect its colony's shipping along the coast.  After gaining independence, America was on its own.  France and England were the appeasers, opting to feed the Terrorists with bounty rather than confront them.
         Because America had a fledgling navy and could barely defend its own borders, President Washington was reluctant to wage war against the Barbary Pirates.   He directed his ministers in France at the time, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to pay the pirates tribute.  Jefferson was opposed to Washington's policy and pleaded to take action against the Barbary Terrorists.  His point was they wouldn't stop bleeding the nation of its funds, or Terrorizing its citizens with threat of death, imprisonment, torture and often execution.
         Jefferson was violently opposed to the extortion, but America did not have the resources at the time to engage itself in war across the sea, so the blood money was given to the Terrorists.   It included barter, and would be paid in gunpowder which Jefferson knew was fueling the Barbary Pirates "weapons of mass destruction," i.e. its cannons.
        When Jefferson was elected President, he had enough.  

       He sent a contingent of U.S. Marines (six, including its leader, Lt. Presely O'Bannon) with a man named William Eaton.  Eaton has been assigned to placate the demands of tribute by the Bey of Tunisia.   The Barbary Pirates were extorting millions of dollars.  They received thousands of dollars for each gun salute to American ships, a convoluted way to extract tribute under the guise of a welcome.
        Eaton's plan to end the Terrorism was to create a regime change, and remove the Dey of Tripoli, Bashaw Yosuf, with his brother, Hemet, whom Bashaw Yosuf had deposed.  Hemet had fled for his life.
        By aligning the U.S. with the outcast brother, when the regime shifted, Eaton's plan was to form an alliance with the new leader (who, remember, was the original leader before being rousted from power by his brother).  This U.S. stance against the despots of the area would signal the other Barbary Coast nations to cease their aggressions.  Europe had refused to help, favoring to pay the tribute.  America was on its own.
        Eaton and the Marines, joined by Greek and local forces, trudged over 400 miles of desert and attacked the city.  They were outnumbered 10-1, but took command as the defenders fled when they charged screaming and shouting like banshees from hell.
        Eventually, the Barbary Pirates were emasculated.  Their power over others through the use of Terror was ended.  

       America had taken a unilateral stand against a foreign threat to their citizens.  Hundreds of American prisoners were released from prisons where they had been held hostage and order was restored.
        Little support was offered to America during this confrontation from England and France, both major victims of the Pirates, and America was the driving force to clear the Terrorists who threatened both these continents.
        What this icon of history speaks to is a legacy of American unilateralism against those who threaten not just the security of the United States and its citizens, but also the security of the world.
        Last night American reporters grilled President Bush on a nationally televised press conference regarding his "lack of foreign diplomacy." Questions were hurled at him suggesting his abrasive and aggressive attitude toward acting "alone," implying his unilateralism was insulting the global community who, prior to the U.S. forcing the issue, were Complacent about Saddam Hussein.

      The reporters slinging questions at President Bush as though they were David and he Goliath,  perhaps haven't read, or perhaps forgot the legacy of American Presidents--and that is their willingness to stand up for what is right in the face of bitter criticism.  In history, Europe didn't want the U.S. to "upset the apple cart" with the Barbary Pirates.  
       The reporters forgot to juxtapose President Bush's 2003 position to that of Thomas Jefferson's in 1804 when he sent William Eaton and U.S. Marine Lt. O'Bannon to lead a startling attack on Terrorism.  Jefferson made that decision in frank opposition to England and France who were eager to pay ransom rather than fight for their rights.
       Jefferson, like Bush, was a "unilateral" anti-Terrorist President, who refused to accept being extorted by "criminals" who used Terrorism's Fear, Intimidation and Complacency to threaten the world.
       Not much has changed in the past two centuries except for the European players.
       If Jefferson were alive today, he would be patting President Bush on the back and urging him forward.  He would be whispering in his ear, "Don't listen to the Europeans, they didn't listen to me, and they won't listen to you.  Do what is right for your people.  You are the Father of the Nation. Protect the Children's Children's Children."
       It bothered me greatly last night at the press conference that no one asked President Bush what he thought of Thomas Jefferson's stand against Terrorism 199 years ago.  It bothered me that American journalists often sounded as though they were of French or German descent, and instead of illuminating unilateral actions by the United States as part of our history,  were attacking the President's position couched in questions that implied his ineptness at foreign policy, rather than his adroitness at keeping it in tune with Presidential history.

      But then American Journalism isn't about history or promoting national purpose.  It has turned into mud slinging attempts to find the Achilles Heel of a nation's credibility, and is geared to debunk America's role as the Sentinel of Vigilance for a global world too reticent to stick its head outside its borders for fear of getting a scratch.  It tends not to look far into the future to the threat Saddam poses, and why stopping him now is more vital than waiting until he has delivered a holocaust upon the world.  And, it tends not to look into the well of American history for precedents that might give granite footing to President Bush's demand that Butcher of Baghdad no longer have the right to butcher.

        Vigilance not Complacency, is the legacy of America,  And what is it?  It is the mix of Courage, Conviction and Right Actions of the Children's Children's Children sake.   Thomas Jefferson knew his role as the Father of Vigilance was to protect his land and his people, despite all the critics who might tell him he shouldn't, or that it was someone else's duty to keep the world safe.   When he attacked the Barbary Coast Pirates, he set an example for American leadership to not kowtow to the whinings of the world that "they," the world, was in charge of America's security.  
       Last night President Bush reiterated he had a Constitutional responsibility to protect America.  He knows Terrorism is a tool of exportation, and that those who irresponsibly created weapons of mass destruction would have little compunction in delivering their weapons to whomever wanted them.  Jefferson also knew the Barbary Coast Pirates would not stop their Terrorism of America unless America stood up to them, regardless of what the Europeans wanted to do which was nothing but pay tribute.
       I believe, if you look closely at President Bush, you'll see him cast a long shadow.  That shadow includes his and Thomas Jefferson's.  Included in it is that of William Eaton, and U.S. Marine Lt. O'Bannon.   These "Shadows of Vigilance"  will be there to urge the President to keep the American Legacy of Vigilance alive, and not sway to the forces of Europe or his own negligent press that seeks to paint him as some wild Texan eager to have a shootout with Saddam.

      No, Jefferson, Eaton and O'Bannon will be reminding Bush he is a President of Vigilance, and that he is fighting for American Principles of Vigilance, Principles that are over 199 years old.   They will remind him over and over, as they have been, that Terrorism feeds hungrily on Complacency, and that those who deny America's right to stand up to Terrorism and take it on single handedly may simply be Barbary Coast Pirates in disguise.
      If you wish to show your support to President Bush, President Jefferson, to William Eaton and U.S. Marine Lt. Presley O'Bannon, then simply take the Pledge of Vigilance.
      They did.  And they did it for you and your children.  Will you do it for them?
                                                           

Mar. 6--The Hobson Choice--War with Iraq or ?

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