"Things started going awry for Americans in the Middle East when
Thomas Jefferson attempted to negotiate with the ambassador of one of
the Barbary states. Why, Jefferson asked at a meeting in London called
to make peace, do you make war on a far off land that has never done you
any harm? It was a reasonable question and it received a clear answer.
The Tripolitanian ambassador, according to the U.S. diplomatic record of the meeting, explained what was happening from his perspective:
"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."
When Jefferson was inaugurated and refused further payment of
tribute, the flag in front of the U.S. Consulate in Tripoli was hacked
down, and hostilities commenced.
American intentions have been going awry in the Middle East since then."
- Walter Russell Mead, Middle East Mess Part Two: Changing Strategies At The White House, 18 September 2012
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