225 Years of War

To The Shores Of Tripoli

Shortly after the Revolutionary War, radical Islamists from the sultanates of North Africa began attacking American flagged ships in acts of piracy to capture the ships and their cargo, and put the sailors into slavery.

From Wikipedia:

In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.

In 1805, USMC Lieutenant Pressley O'Bannon lead his Marines in the Battle of Derna in what is today Libya, to help restore Prince Hamet Karamanli to his throne in Tripoli.  This lead to the defeat of the Barbary pirates, the second line of the Marine Corps Hymn, and the USMC officers' Mameluke sword that is based on the sword Prince Hamet presented to Lt. O'Bannon and has been carried by Marine officers since 1825.
 
 
In more recent times, the war has continued with (among many others):
 
1972 - Muslim extremists from a mosque in New York lure police with a false alarm call, then ambush them
 
1979 - Iranian "students" seized the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days
 
1983 - 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers killed by a truck bomb at the Marine Barracks in Beirut
 
1991 - Operation Desert Storm
 
1993 - Palestinian shoots up the entrance to CIA headquarters - First World Trade Center attack
 
1997 - Palestinian shoots seven visitors to the Empire State Building observation platform
 
9/11/01 - Nearly 3,000 killed in the largest attack on US targets since Pearl Harbor
 
2002 - DC Sniper attacks with the goal of starting an Islamic revolution
 
2007 - Muslim immigrant kills five and wounds four shooting up a Salt Lake City mall
 
2011 - Muslim immigrant and Marine Reservist shoots USMC museum, Pentagon and a recruiting office
 
Source: www.TheReligionOfPeace.com
 
 
9/11 Memories
 
On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I was pulling into the courthouse, a few minutes before 9 o'clock, listening to the John Boy & Billy radio show, when they said that they were getting a report that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  My thoughts were that some nitwit pilot got too close, and I was hoping not too many were hurt or killed... after all, in 1945, a B52 crashed into the Empire State Building and only 14 people were killed.  I thought no more about it and went into court.  I had other things on my mind, such as the handful of cases I had scheduled that morning and Magnum, the chow-chow/basset hound mix that I was scheduled to pick up at the pound after I got done in court.
 
These were the days before Facebook, Twitter, and the Internet on a cell phone.  In fact, my only communication device was an alpha-numeric pager on which I got news headlines, sports scores, weather alerts and precious metal prices, along with messages from work.  As I sat in court, waiting for my cases, a friend from another agency came over and told me to check my news updates because it looked like we were under attack.  I began checking, and saw where planes had hit both towers and the Pentagon.  Confusion reigned.  Reports included a car bomb outside the Dept. of Commerce, missing planes, and estimates of 10s of thousands dead.  I later saw the text readout about the plane going down in Pennsylvania and the towers collapsing.  It was very surreal as deputies and officers kept checking their pagers, the bailiff carried notes to the judge, but everything continued as scheduled.
 
I don't recall when court ended, but it was sometime in the late morning.  I rushed out to my Jeep and turned on the radio to start getting some fresh information.  I then went to Green Top Sporting Goods where I picked up 200 rounds of ammo for my AK47.  It seemed like the thing to do.  Apparently, a whole lot of people had similar ideas.  The parking lot was filled, and people were 3 and 4 deep across the length of the gun counter.  Next, I went to the pound and picked up Magnum.  Check back to my post after the earthquake the other day where I talk a little about him.  I lifted him up into the Jeep (the basset hound part of him included his legs) and we went to a friend's nearby house and I finally got to see the footage from the attacks and the buildings falling.  Words can't describe it.
 
That night at home, I walked Magnum out in the yard and down to the street.  I looked up at the empty sky.  It is really amazing how empty silent they truly were.
 
The war continues.  Americans are targets around the globe.  The magazine, Inspire, is an English-language e-mag aimed at recruiting American jihadists to continue the attacks on our people.
 
As preppers, we must stay vigilant and prepared. 
 
 
Sponsor of the Week
 
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