...the more they stay the same.

My darling daughter brought me a book for my birthday.  Six Frigates - the epic history of the founding of the U.S. Navy - Ian W. toll.

The first chapter lays out the state of the maritime world in the late 1700s and I found a section including  coorespondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson discussing what should be done with the depredations of the Barbary Pirates.  The four Barbary states had no other source of income other than officially sanctioned institutional piracy.  Adams believed they should be paid off as other small countries were doing, but Jefferson wasn't sure.  Help with piracy in the Med was not forthcoming from the large naval powers, because the pirates kept the smaller trading nations in check.  America was still decades away from reconciliation with Great Britain and was not on the best of terms with the new French republican government.

Adams doubted the Congress would vote to send warships to the Mediterranean.  Adams reported that the tribute system had been in place long before the United States arrived on the scene: "The Policy of Christendom has made Cowards of all their Sailors before the Standard of Mahomet.  It would be would be heroical and glorious in Us to restore courage to ours.  I doubt not that we could accomplish it, if we should set about it in earnest.  But the Difficulty of bringing our People to agree upon it has ever discouraged me."

Jefferson was taking a different tack.  He told Adams he believed that "it would be best to effect a peace through the medium of war."  He laid out his reasons: "I.  Justice is in favor of this opinion. II. Honor favors it.  III  It will procure us respect in Europe, and respect is a safe-guard to interest".

But Adams did not believe the American people or their leaders were ready either to rebuild the navy or to fight a war in the Mediterranean.  "We ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight them forever. This thought, I fear, is too rugged for our People to bear".  Adams told Jefferson that "Congress was so weak and indecisive that it would not be capable of doing anything at all about the Barbary threat".

Well we know what happened.  Eventually the depredations became so great the the US bankrupted itself building 6 frigates.  Over the course of the next few years the Barbary States were repeatedly slammed back to the advantage of the US and other small trading nations with few or no warships.