Compass Points - Fight the Pirates
It takes a strong President
Compass Points - Fight the Pirates
It takes a strong President
November 6, 2024
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Perhaps the Houthi pirates today should read about what President Jefferson did with the Barbary pirates.
When Thomas Jefferson became President back in March of 1801 he faced a long simmering problem with the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco. For decades American ships had been attacked in the Mediterranean and American sailors and merchantmen taken hostage.
Jefferson knew the situation well. Years before, in 1784, Congress had sent Jefferson, along with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to negotiate treaties with the principal states of Europe and the Mediterranean -- including the Barbary states. That is when Jefferson first learned that most nations made annual payments to the Barbary pirates.
Once he was President, Jefferson began by continuing to pay the pirates, but eventually he took a different approach. He began to send American ships to blockade the Barbary states.
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Emboldened by a well-equipped US Navy, Thomas Jefferson sent ships and Marines to combat the threat of piracy off North Africa. Upon arriving with a force aided by Greek Christian and Arab mercenaries, the US Military set out on a mission to quell the pirate threat and establish America as a legitimate world military power.
Although holding together a force of Christian and Muslim mercenaries proved more complicated than they thought, they set out from Alexandria, Egypt to lay siege to the Libyan city of Derna.
The US Navy, along with any allies they could scrap up, was already conducting a blockade of Barbary Pirate ports as well as leading raids when possible. For O’Bannon and Marine Corps history, they went on a 600-mile march over the deserts of Egypt and Libya to reach Derna.
When they arrived, Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led a charge with his Marines and combined mercenary force to take the city of Derna. It marked the first time that the American flag was victoriously raised in combat on foreign soil.
With continued pressure from the sea and a new threat of land invasion from Derna, the Barbary powers signed a treaty ending hostilities on June 10, 1805. For their actions in combat, an Ottoman Empire Viceroy gifted Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon a Mameluke sword that became the inspiration for the sword carried by United States Marine Officers to this very day.
-- Jeff Edwards, War History Online
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The Barbary pirates were defeated. That was then. What about the Houthi pirates today? Not only have the Houthi pirates attacked shipping in the Red Sea, reports indicate they have started extorting payments from ship operators.
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Arab press reports cite a 537-page report compiled by a United Nations (UN) expert panel on Yemen which is said to claim that the Houthis are earning up to $180 million a month from ship operators seeking to avoid the far longer and more expensive voyage round the Cape of Good Hope.
According to the UN experts, the Iranian-backed Houthis have now transformed from a relatively small local resistance group into a powerful regional force.
. . . There is growing concern in global shipping circles that the escalating crisis in the Red Sea that has become a wider regional conflict will now be far more difficult to resolve. And, if the reports of shipowners resorting to bungs in exchange for safe passage have any basis in truth, the Houthis are unlikely to forego this rich new revenue stream any time soon.
Conflict in the Red Sea has already blown a $6 billion hole in Egyptian revenue from the Suez Canal, the country’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told IMO Secretary General, Arsenio Dominguez in a meeting last Friday. But if the passage between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea were blocked for a longer period, the cost to the global economy could make this look like small change.
-- Seatrade Maritime
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Compass Points salutes President Jefferson and Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon as well as all those who fought to end the Barbary pirates. The Houthi pirates today should consider what President Jefferson did with the Barbary pirates. The Houthis today no doubt enjoy receiving payments of fear. Those payments of fear, however, will not last forever. The time will come, perhaps very soon, when the US will lead a coalition of allies to crush today's Houthi pirates. Beware Houthis. Keep watching the horizon. An entire force of Presley O'Bannons is on the way.
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Seatrade Maritime - 11/05/2024
Fears grow as Houthi rebels capitalise on rich Red Sea revenue stream
Threats rarely grow weaker and fade away. In this case they grow stronger and their image and reputation are enhanced. They become a model for others who wish to poke the most powerful nation in the eye.
The situation is very clear. The United States did not act. By now we should have formed a coalition of like minded nations and funded them to destroy these modern day robber barons. Or barring that, done it ourself. Ideal mission for a Navy - Marine Team with a MAGTF along with some Egyptian and Saudi Allies as well as financial support from the major sea faring nations that ply these waters and are currently paying off these reprobates. This is a classic scenario for a punitive expedition.
Instead, we spend considerable sums playing defense and expending expensive missiles shooting down their third rate rocketry.
Unfortunately a Marine Corps that was fully capable of executing this mission five years ago is not prepared to deploy, engage, defeat and retrograde today.
Our enemies are not stupid. They know exactly what we can and cannot do and act accordingly.
Did not know it at the time, but my family home is next to the O’Bannon family home. It is now a historical site. My Mameluke hangs in testimony of lieutenant O’Bannon’s achievement. Proudly!