We’ve all sat by and watched as the drama of the Maersk Alabama unfold off Somalia. It is hard not to applaud the American crew as they have fought off the sea-jihadis who would hold them and their vessel for ransom – or be saddened by the distinctly weak approach of the Obama Regime to piracy on the high seas.

A U.S. Navy destroyer kept close watch Thursday on a lifeboat holding four Somali pirates and their hostage — an American ship captain — one day after the pirates briefly seized a United States-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Africa.

As Washington awoke to a second day of the crisis, the Navy summoned the FBI for advice on how to rescue the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vermont.

An FBI spokeswoman, Denise Ballew, described the bureau’s crisis negotiators as “fully engaged” with the military in strategizing ways to retrieve the ship’s captain and secure the unarmed container ship, the Maersk Alabama, and its American crew.

Monitoring the situation? Heck, there is certainly a better way to proceed here – rather than negotiate, go straight in and fight. Give these sea-jihadis an ultimatum to surrender and then swoop in with a rescue. What’s more, American warplanes should have already bombed out of existence any identified sea-jihadi outpost in the region. An American president with any strength of character, one who believed in the ability and the right of America to secure its interests around the globe, would have already acted to put an end to this farce.

Indeed, there exists a lesson from our nation’s history on precisely how piracy by sea-jihadis demanding ransom for American citizens ought to be handled. The president who ordered these actions was among our greatest, Thomas Jefferson.

On the night of February 16, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. led a small contingent of the U.S.'s first Marines in the captured Tripolitan ketch rechristened USS Intrepid, to deceive the guards on board the Philadelphia and float close enough to board the captured ship. Decatur's men stormed the vessel and overpowered the Tripolitan sailors standing guard. With support from American ships, the Marines set fire to the Philadelphia, denying her use to the enemy, and captured the city. This action was memorialized in a line from the Marines' Hymn — "the shores of Tripoli." Subsequently, the bravery in action of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. made him one of the first American military heroes since the Revolutionary War.

[Comodore Edward] Preble attacked Tripoli outright on July 14, 1804 in a series of inconclusive battles, including a courageous but unsuccessful attack by the fire ship USS Intrepid under Captain Richard Somers. Intrepid, packed with explosives, was to enter Tripoli harbor and destroy itself and the enemy fleet; it was destroyed, perhaps by enemy guns, before achieving that goal, killing Somers and his crew.

The turning point in the war came with the Battle of Derna (April-May 1805). Ex-consul William Eaton, who went by the rank of general, and US Marine First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led a mixed force of eight United States Marines and 500 Greek, Arab and Berber mercenaries on a remarkable overland march across the desert from Alexandria, Egypt to assault the Tripolitan city of Derna.

In the end, this country fought two separate military actions against the Barbary Pirates, ending their attacks upon American maritime interests. Jefferson, and later Madison, acted in defense of America rather than giving in to the sea-jihadis who seized our vessels and took our citizens as hostages and slaves. Obama, if he is man enough, should take their examples as his own and act decisively against them – not order our fighting men to stand by and observe while negotiations ensue.