It seems Congress is not ever happy when the USA goes to battle with muslims!! Why?

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But Captain John Downes, who had served in the previous wars against Muslim pirates in Tripoli and Algeria, had a more realistic assessment of the problem and pointed out to the Secretary of the Navy and his boss that the Muslim pirates were treacherous and cruel, that showing off a warship without using it would be a futile show of weakness, and that besieging them was useless because they would simply disappear into the jungle or scatter to islands.

“The character of the people against whom I had to operate left me no room to doubt that a movement prompt and efficient in its character could alone carry with it the least possible hopes of success,” Downes wrote. The scouting expedition followed by a surprise attack against an enemy which had 500 armed men and fanatical beliefs proved efficient and successful.

The enemy “were never known to spare man, woman or child which had unfortunately fallen into their hands”, and could never be trusted to negotiate in good faith. But Congress was not happy.

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