I am impressed although not surprised that you came up with that reference Tarheel.
"From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli"
Glad it ended the way it did but it is time to release the muthafuckin' hounds.
Excellent, excellent reference, Saniflush! And a well appreciated article about the Hero(es) of the Barbary Wars!
I was thinking of an only slightly more recent hostage taking during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt in which an American of Greek heritage named, Ion Perdicaris, was taken hostage by a follower of 'the religion of pieces' who called himself "The Raisuli" [sic].
Even though it turned out during the crisis that the hostage (although born in America) had become a full Greek citizen, the Roosevelt Administration stood it's ground; Roosevelt's Secretary of State, John Hay, released a statement saying:
"The United States government wants Perdicaris returned alive or The Raisuli dead."
Roosevelt dispatched the U. S. Marine Corp and the Navy to Morocco and Perdicaris was released unharmed.
And then Reagan's famous words come to mind too; "We do not negotiate with terrorists."
Too bad The ONE is such a disgusting weltbuerger. He's 'closely monitoring the situation'. Well so the fuck are we! The ONE, on the other hand, is supposed to be doing something!