But yes… that was where Captain Somers blew himself up. I have a copy of the ring that he gave to Admiral Prebble (I think his name was).

Nothing new here–those seeking power and wealth have used religion as the excuse for centuries. Have times changed?

We had a conference with the Ambassador of Tripoli at his house. The amount of all the information we can obtain from him was that perpetual peace was in all respects the most advisable, because a temporary treaty would leave room for increasing demands upon every renewal of it, and a stipulation for annual payments would be liable to failures of performance which would renew the war, repeat the negotiations and continually augment the claims of his nation and the difference in expense would by no means be adequate to the inconvenience.

We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise.

East is East
And West is West
Never the Twain Shall Meet.

He was an expert on European/ Asian interaction through his many years in British colonial India. His ideas were that although Western and Eastern peoples shouldnt be deliberately seperated, the thousands of years of divergant cultural differences would make full social interaction between East and west difficult if not impossible.

This is not to say that ‘They’ are ‘Our’ enemy and that all indeviduals are bad people. Its just eastern and western nations will probably always struggle.