America’s
Everlasting Enemy
“We
ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight them forever.” –
John Adams
Arab dictators
were pirating American merchant ships off Africa, holding their passengers and
crews hostage and demanding ransom and tribute while armies of Islamic
extremists were running rampage across Africa and the Middle East, killing
infidels, destroying relics, graves and libraries and establishing Sharia law
everywhere they conquered, beheading the men and selling women and children off
as slaves.
Sound
familiar? Well that was the situation at the turn of the 18th
century – over two hundred years ago, when the Barbary state tyrants of Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli pirated American ships, demanded ransom and
tribute, and sparked an American political debate over whether the ransom and
tributes should be paid or whether a Navy should be formed and sent to fight
them.
“Millions
for defense but not one cent for tribute” was the battle cry, which led John
Adams to say, “We ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight
them forever.”
So
Congress approved the funds for the construction of four frigates and the
establishment of a Navy, which today, finds itself in ships named after the
heroes of the Barbary Wars – the USS Barry, USS Bainbridge, USS Serrett have
all been fighting pirates off Africa and radical Islamist armies running
rampage over Afghanistan, Africa, Syria and Iraq.
John Barry, the first flag officer of the US Navy was charged by President Washington to train midshipman to be the first offices of the new navy and the first three - Richard Somers, Stephen Decatur and Charles Stew art went on to distinguish themselves in the Barbary wars and have warships named after them. Somers never returned home and is buried in Tripoli despite the efforts to have his remains repatriated.
The first American ship to engage the Islamic pirate over two hundred years ago, the schooner U.S.S. Enterprise was commanded by Lt. Sterret, who raked the pirate ship Tripoli with a number of broadsides before the Libyan pirate captain surrendered., but since the United States had yet to officially declare war, Sterret left the pirates with one sail so it could return to report what the Americans were capable of.
When the
frigate U.S.S. Philadelphia, assigned to blockade Tripoli harbor, ran aground, Captain
Bainbridge surrendered, and his 300 man crew became prisoners of the Basha of
Tripoli, the tyrant Yousef Karamanli, who held the prisoners in the dungeons of
the old castle fort, except the five sailors who agreed to convert to Islam.
As on
Islamic text explained how The Prophet Mohammed treated those he conquered, “The
Prophet agreed to save their lives as long as they repented their treachery and
agreed to abide by the Muslim law, which they (Jews) refused to do. All of the
men of the tribe were put to the sword. It was intended to underline the point
the Prophet was trying to make: that the laws of Islam had superseded those
from the ancient past. This incident had nothing to do with anti-Semitism and
shortly afterwards, as if to prove the point, the Prophet married one of the
Jewish widows.”
As an
excuse for their barbarism, the Islamists quoted the bible (Deuteronomy 7:2): “When
the Lord your God give them over to you and you defeat them, then you must
utterly destroy them, and make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to
them.” -
President
John Adams said: “As the essential principle of the Islam faith is the
subjugation of others by the sword, it is only by force that his false
doctrines can be dispelled and his power annihilated.”
In the
early 1800s, when Americans went to Tripoli to fight the Barbary Pirates, they
did so for the same reasons we fight the radical Islamic terrorists today – for
the things we believe in – liberty, freedom and democracy, concepts they
reject.
And just
as the American prisoners who were enslaved and held for ransom were given the
opportunity to convert to Islam to earn their freedom, five of the 300 men of
the captured frigate USS Philadelphia decided to defect.
Others
who were killed in the Battles of Tripoli, including the men of the USS
Intrepid, are buried today in clearly marked graves and above ground crypts in
a small walled cemetery near the harbor.
Here lies an American sailor who gave his life in the explosion of the United States ship Intrepid in Tripoli Harbor September 4, 1804
The Grave of an "Amerique" at the cemetery at Tripoli Harbor now threatened by radical Islamists
The
graves of the American Naval heroes in Tripoli are now in great peril as the
cemetery where they are entombed is now under the control of radical Islamist
militias who also control the airport (formerly Wheelus AFB) as well as the
American embassy compound, and frequently engage in grave robbing as a tactic
to promote their cause.
These
fierce fighters are salafist jahidist who despise democracy, hate Americans and
believe in an extreme orthodox form of Islam that prohibits the veneration of
the dead and they don’t t allow others to do so. They impose a strict form of Shara law that
governs everybody in lands where they control, and they now control the grave
site of the American Naval heroes that should be repatriated home whenever the
situation permits.
They
follow the same brand of Islam that we know as the Taliban, the Al-Shabab, ISIS and
the radical Islamists who now control Trpoli, as well as the Barbary Pirates
America fought over 200 years ago.
Although
Mohmar Gadhafi and the dictators of Tunisia and Egypt suppressed and imprisoned
many of these religious warriors, the early successes of the Arab Spring
revolutions freed them to try to take advantage of t he post revolutionary
power vacuum to violently take control and impose a caphalate and sharah law.
One of
the first things they did after Gadhafi was deposed was to desecrate the graves
of Sufi Muslim saints, some centuries old, dig up their remains from below the
floors of ancient Mosques, and run off with their bones and relics into the
desert like they did with Gadhafi, never to be seen again.
They
also desecrated the graves of American and British soldiers in a military
cemetery in Tabrok, and will certainly destroy the graves of the American Naval
heroes in Tripoli if they knew and recognized their significance.
We don’t
need to get large numbers of people to petition or convince Congress, but only
have to convince one person – Secretary of Defense Charles Hegel that the
repatriation of the remains of these men can and should be done as soon as the
security situation in Tripoli allows.
Fortunately
Hegel is the first enlisted man who has seen combat in Vietnam to serve as
Secretary of Defense, and he listened to the MOMs wives and widows of the
POWMIAs from the Vietnam era, recognized the incompetence and inefficiency of
the military POW/MP office/x and cleaned house, fired those who refused to
utilize DNA testing, revamped their procedures and combined both agencies.
That
same office refused to repatriate the remains of the Naval heroes in Tripoli
and were the primary contributors to the 2012 study authorized by Congress that
concluded the remains should not be repatriated and remain where they are,
without even a mention of the threat imposed by the radical Islamic extremists.
Since
those military offices and that report have now been totally discredited, it is
imperative that their policy regarding the Tripoli remains be reversed, and can
be by order of the Secretary, who has the authority to order the exhumation and
repatriation of American military personal from abroad. -
It will
be easier for us to convince on man who is already familiar with these issues,
and can recognize the positive benefits of repatriation besides preventing the desecration and destruction of the graves of American heroes.
Graves of Centuries old Sufi Saints Robbed from Mosques in Tripoli
Chuck Hagel Secretary
of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
May 22,
2014
Dear
Secretary Hagel,
Thank
you for listening to the families of the MIA and POWs and reorganizing the
POW-MP-JPAC offices, as their most glaring failure was the refusal to
repatriate the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli, a mission
that must still be completed.
The last
official report (2012) fails to mention the serious threat to the remains by
the grave robbing Salfists - the same radical extremists believed to be
responsible for the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the recent wave of
political assassinations, diplomatic kidnappings and grave desecrations.
The
Benghazi headquarters of the Salfist Ansar Shariah militia, designated a
terrorist organization by the US government, was recently attacked by a general
who inflamed their passions and hatred for Americans, making the situation more
critical now than ever before.
These
orthodox Islamists don’t believe in the education of women, singing and dancing
or the reverence of the dead, and try to impose their beliefs on everyone. They
are of the same sect as the Taliban, who kill schoolgirls in Afghanistan, and
those who desecrated the tombs of Islamic holy men in Derna. They are of the
same religious beliefs as the Boco Horan, who kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria
and they espouse the same fanatical beliefs as the Tripoli pirates we fought in
the Barbary Wars.
One of
the first things Chris Stevens did as ambassador was to visit the graves of the
men of the Intrepid. When the US Navy conducted a ceremony at the graves in
1945, the Mayor of Tripoli was Yousef Karamanli, a namesake and descendent of
the despot we fought two centuries ago. So it’s not difficult to understand why
Chris Stevens sympathized with the Libyan people, supported their revolution,
and was helping them establish a democratic nation when he was killed by the
same radical extremists who now threaten the graves of the American military
heroes who were left behind.
The
Libyan Revolution ended at Tripoli’s Martyr’s Square where the only real
martyrs are the Americans who perished on one of the first special op missions,
a mission that continues today and won’t be completed until they are brought
safely home.
A few
years ago the State Department arranged for the emergency repatriation of
nearly a hundred Americans from Wheelus Air Force base cemetery near Tripoli,
but they left behind the remains of the men of the Intrepid, and the eminent
danger posed by the grave robbing Salafists presents an emergency that requires
the repatriation of their remains as soon as the situation their permits.
As the
Secretary of Defense you have the power to order a Joint Service mission to
recover the remains of these men so the POW/MP office can reclaim its honor, a
real historic repatriation ceremony can be held and these men can be honored
and buried safely at home with their shipmates.
Unlike at the Grave of the Unknowns, there are
no armed guards protecting these men, and it will be to our everlasting shame
if their graves are found to be empty and desecrated.
Thank
you for your time and attention to this matter,
William
E. Kelly, Jr.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens at the graves of the American Naval Heroes in Tripoli
