We Owe The Existence Of Our Constitution, In Part, To The Existence Of Muslim Pirates

From Jonah Goldberg:

One small observation (my apologies if it's already been made I've been mightily distracted this week): It's worth remembering that we owe the existence of our Constitution in part to the existence of Muslim pirates. 

If you've read Michael Oren's wonderful book, Power, Faith and Fantasy: American in the Middle East 1776 to the Present, you'll remember that the Articles of Confederation were thrown out in part because they couldn't provide for a Navy capable of defeating the Barbary pirates and others. 

We needed a strong central government for that. I've always liked to bring this up in discussions about the conflict — sometimes real, sometimes imaginary — between a strong national defense and civil liberties. 

You know the argument, the bigger the "national security state" gets, the more curtailed our constitutional liberties become. Etc. etc. 

Whatever the merits of that argument — and I think there are fewer than most people realize — the great irony is that the cart is put before the horse. And I don't just mean that the military defends the American way of life and all that. Rather, If we hadn't needed a bigger military in the first place, we might not have those constitutional liberties that bigger militaries are supposed to be at odds with.