As the Iranians now admit to shooting down the Ukrainian Boeing 737 aircraft with Canadians, Ukrainians, and Iranians onboard, it is instructive to review some past experiences in the region.  Our battles with some members of the Islamic world go back to the origins of our nation.  At that time, there were two lines of thought to managing the problem posed by the Barbary pirates of northern Africa.  In the end, the approach used by Thomas Jefferson (our third president) won the day.  He opposed the payments of tribute to the governing bodies of the Barbary coast, as had been done by John Adams and George Washington.  Strikingly, it is similar to the approach used by Donald Trump in contrast to Barack Obama. The British fleet was the protectorate for the American colonial merchant sailors.  However, with independence, the USA was at the mercy of the Barbary states (who were semi-autonomous under the...(Read Full Post)