William Bradley: The Afghan War and the Spirit of Jefferson

Jefferson was quick to use military force to secure maritime rights of passage and lines of commerce for the young American republic. But that was an issue of fundamental interests, as well as a message to the world.

Would Jefferson see the massive military and nation building mission in Afghanistan as a wise and necessary course of action?

It's hard to argue that he would.

Jefferson didn't insist on deposing the ruler of Tripoli and imposing a government to his own liking. He merely insisted that he and his allies stop taking American ships. And he abhorred the thought of America as a"nation of eternal war."

We defeated Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. Though we quite inexplicably let Osama bin Laden and other top leaders escape.

The appropriate task in Afghanistan now is to prevent it being used again as a base of operations for attacks on us. We don't have to control the whole country in order to do that.

Incidentally, there was a Second Barbary War.

Ten years after Jefferson won the First Barbary War, in 1815, U.S. forces had to go back.

The piracy against American vessels, which halted in 1805, started up again as Britain sought to reimpose its will against its former colonies, leading to the War of 1812. With American forces obviously distracted and otherwise occupied, and with the Royal Navy keeping the U.S. Navy out of the Mediterranean, American ships were again captured.

But when the second war against the British ended, the Second Barbary War began, this time under the leadership of Jefferson's protege and former secretary of state, James Madison.

This war ended, not surprisingly, with the same result as the first, though much faster. The threat from the North African states to American commerce in the Mediterranean ended. And America didn't have to worry about trying to run countries on the other side of the world.