From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli. We will fight our nation’s battles, in the air, on land and sea. – Marine Corp Hymn
Avoid Foreign Entanglements
In the beginning of our Constitutional nation, we faced “known” foreign policy threats. It was only twenty years after the Revolution, and we were still economically entangled with the British Empire. Our ally of the Revolution, France, was continually at war with Britain. In spite of George Washington’s final words to “avoid foreign entanglements,” it wasn’t easy. France had their own Revolution, and much of its ideology came directly from America’s founding documents.
Both France and Britain directly contacted American borders – Britain owned Canada and still had great interest in the American West (then the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi). France owned much of the land west of the Mississippi – the Louisiana Territory. And both had interactions with the Native American tribes whose land the American settlers were claiming.
For the first three decades of the United States, interactions with Britain and France dominated foreign policy. But it was in a different geographical area that our first international military actions took place. It was on the “Barbary Coast”.
Barbary Pirates
The Southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea was ostensibly controlled by the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. But the land was sub-divided into military “republics” whose main source of income was piracy from European shipping and slave-trading along the Africa coast. Even though the Ottoman Sultan diplomatically recognized the United States and encouraged American trade, he was unable to protect American flagged ships from piracy.
American diplomats arranged “payment” for protection from the pirates. The John Adam’s Administration paid “tribute” to the Barbary states, protection money to keep the pirates at bay. It took an exorbitant $642,000 from the US Treasury to gain the release of captured sailors and protection from further attack. But when Jefferson won the election of 1800, he refused to continue the tributes, instead depending on the new American Navy and Marines to protect American shipping.
One of the first foreign military actions of the new United States armed forces was attacking the Barbary Pirates, including a land invasion of one Barbary territory, Tripoli (“…to the shores of Tripoli”). The attacks temporarily achieved the goal of stopping the piracy, though it took further action a few years later to completely protect American shipping.
Paying Tribute
The United States has a long tradition of protecting industry from evil foreign actors. It was the Marines that ultimately freed the sailors in Tripoli, and the US government that solved the piracy problem. Today there is a whole different form of piracy going on. A few weeks ago, Russian hackers (the new word for pirates) brought the US gas supply on the East coast to a halt. They “only” asked for “tribute”; $5 million to release the computers and restore gas supply. This week they “pirated” a major meat supplier in the US, resulting in spiking prices and meat shortages.
And we also know that those same hackers infiltrated dozens of US government agencies. What they did (or plan or doing) with the information they gained, we don’t know. But what we have found, just like those early American leaders, is that paying “tribute” doesn’t seem to solve the problem.
It’s not as simple as sending a couple of cruisers and the Marines. The “hacker/pirates” operate from the protection of Russia, as the Barbary pirates operated from the protection of the Barbary Republics. And like those pirates, the hackers of today are probably paying “protection” as well, with the leaders of the Russian government getting their “cut” of the profits.
Cyber-Marines
The United States has the capacity of tracing the sources of internet piracy, and creating electronic havoc on their processes. We also have the capability of doing much more, if needed, to stop these attacks on our private infrastructure. We can bring pressure on the Putin’s Russian Government to take control, and if they don’t, we can give them a taste of their own piracy.
It’s not just a matter of paying “tribute”. American life is completely enmeshed in networks, from electric grids to mobile communications. Our hospitals, schools, hydro-electric dams, public transportation, gas stations and grocery stores are all “tied” together electronically, and vulnerable to the modern day “Barbary Pirates”. Our Founding Fathers faced the same situation, and used the then small force of American might to resolve the issue.
They showed us the way. We need the “cyber-Marines” to go to the halls of St. Petersburg. I’m sure they already know the address.
