How would Thomas Jefferson deal with ISIS if he were president today?Are there any lessons we can learn from the Barbary Wars that would apply to Islamic terrorism today? Professor of history Kevin Gutzman joins the Freedom Report to discuss the threat of ISIS and put it in historical context.
Gutzman is an accomplished author and educator, whose most recent book James Madison and the Making of America was featured in the popular Netflix series House of Cards. Gutzman argues in this show that the type of threat posed by Islamists is alien to the American experience, other than perhaps the Barbary Wars themselves.
Jefferson’s strategy of overwhelming force was effective in fighting off the Tripolitan corsair raiders, but what would he have thought about the modern concept of nation-building? Gutzman’s insight into the modern struggle against radical Islam sheds light into the thinking of the founders, and how they may have dealt with modern threats.
This podcast goes into the troubles of how our current President Obama is dealing with Islamic terrorism, and their fundamental misunderstanding of their motivations. Is ISIS really not Islamic? Does denying their religious principles make it more likely for them to be shunned by the less radical sects of Islam? And how does professor Gutzman feel about the State Department’s assertion that we can’t beat them with a war of bullets, but maybe they just need jobs?
That kind of rhetoric leads one to question whether the White House isn’t considering some form of make-work projects for the American taxpayer to finance jobs for reformed terrorists. All that and more on today’s very special episode of the Freedom Report podcast.
