Saturday, June 06, 2009
First Barbary War-Boarding the Philadelphis by J.O. Davison (photo-U.S. Naval Historical Center)
Conservative writer and scholar Max Boot was not entirely displeased with President Barack Obama’s address on Wednesday in Egypt, pointing out several points in the speech that he supported. But Obama “twisted history” when it came to his discussion of the 1796 treaty with Tripoli pirates, says Boot, who covered the Barbary Wars in his book The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power.
In discussing President John Adams’ decision to sign the Treaty of Tripoli, Obama made the agreement sound like “a celebration of American-Muslim partnership when in reality it was a treaty whereby the U.S. paid substantial bribes to the ruler of Tripoli in return for a cessation of attacks on American shipping by his corsairs.” Furthermore, Tripoli failed to abide by the treaty, leading a young U.S. government to embark on its first overseas defense of American interests.
Despite this historical misrepresentation, Boot still felt the president did “an effective job of making America’s case to the Muslim world. No question: He is a more effective salesman than his predecessor was. Which doesn’t mean that his audience will buy the message.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Obama in Cairo (by Max Boot, Commentary Magazine)
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