The Barbary Pirates of Washington – By Matthew Stevenson (Counterpunch) / June 9, 2023
Maybe Thomas Jefferson was right. Maybe the best place for the U.S. Navy, if not the standing army, is under canvas in Annapolis.
In case you’ve forgotten, Jefferson, when he was president, proposed mothballing the American fleet. He feared a war with England (which broke out in 1812, when James Madison was president), and he loathed the effect that militarism had on the body politic.
Jefferson only came to these views after sending a few warships to the Mediterranean to quell the Barbary pirates, but he never got his wish to put the navy into dry dock.
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