Hostage-taking has figured in U.S. history

  • By James McCusker
  • Thursday, February 5, 2015 2:03pm
  • Business

ISIS has released a video depicting the murder of a captured Jordanian pilot. Not satisfied with the gruesome beheadings that have become the hallmark of ISIS propaganda, the pilot was instead caged and burned alive, taking their criminal actions to a new low of depravity.

We do not know the specific motives for this act, but it seems likely that one of its goals is establishing total control of ISIS over hostage ransom demands, substituting “or else” for any negotiations. Whether it will have that effect, or will stiffen the resolve of civilized countries to subdue or destroy ISIS, remains to be seen.

Hostage-taking and ransoms have been an element in U.S. history from the beginnings of our country — and for Islamic nations hundreds of years before that.

Very shortly after gaining its independence the United States found its important international trade sector beset by piracy on the high seas and, especially in the Mediterranean. No longer enjoying the protection of the British Navy, our unarmed merchantmen were easy prey for pirates based in North Africa who demanded ransoms for cargos and crews as well as annual payments to insure safe passage in the future — the usual protection racket element.

Two military actions against the pirates and the governments who shielded them — called the Barbary Wars -were fought. They first war was interrupted by an eventually violated peace treaty and our War of 1812 with England, which was itself preying on U.S. merchant ships, seizing cargo and impressing crews into British Navy service. Presidents had a lot to deal with in those days, too.

The effects of these lesser-known wars should not be underestimated. England finally realized that the United States was not ever going to return to the colonial fold. It was an independent country and was stronger and more resolved than it looked. The Barbary Coast pirates realized that the U.S. could and would defend its merchant fleet and the pirates would be defeated. And here at home there was recognition that overseas trade was important to our country, and that protecting U.S. interests from predators required a high seas navy and a maritime assault force — a Marine Corps. It would be costly, but worth it. That recognition, equipped with armed forces adapted to changing technology, is still the keystone of the U.S. position in defending its national security and global interests.

Prior to the first Barbary War, a campaign slogan of the fading Federalist Party took on a life of its own and became an element of U.S. foreign policy. The slogan, “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute,” remains to this day in our thoughts as we face abductions and hostage-taking in many areas of the world.

Domestically, the U.S. had experienced hostage-taking from its earliest days as a colony. Indian tribes throughout early American history had often abducted white settlers, sometimes as trophies or slaves, sometimes for revenge, but, over time, increasingly for use as hostages held for ransom.

In the thinly settled frontier areas of Texas and Oklahoma the post-Civil War period saw an increase in raiding parties by the Plains Indians, most notably the Comanche and Kiowa tribes. The underlying motive was economic; they were starving. Their nomadic hunting livelihood had been largely destroyed or denied to them and they became adept in livestock theft and hostage-taking, shaping their raids into a hostage ransom business whose revenue was needed to buy food in order to survive. The brutality on both sides of that frontier war is a chapter in American, and human, history that is difficult to read, let alone understand. Some flavor for its effects on the participants, though, can be found in the movie, “The Searchers,” one of the first film efforts to take the American West seriously.

Economics is not the only force behind today’s hostage-taking, of course, but it is a significant factor. It was dominant, in fact, in the piracy operations centered in East Africa, which captured ships, cargo, and people and held all for ransom.

Terrorism is expensive, and organizations like ISIS that are newly expanding their aggression depend not only on donations from the gullible but also on money derived from plunder and ransom money just like the pirates of old. If ISIS is allowed to mature, it will add extortion and other protection racket techniques also.

The decision to murder hostages with such depravity shows that the ideologues are very much in charge of ISIS but this doesn’t change the underlying economics. Terrorism still costs a lot of money. And if the propaganda impact of its depravity can be redirected to make donors ashamed to support the organization responsible for it, ISIS would be one step closer to extinction.

James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a column for the monthly Herald Business Journal.

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