Is It a War or a Squirmish?

The former half-term governor of Alaska has apparently blessed us with another coined word.

Just as a reminder: the first United States military action against Tripoli began in 1801 and continued for the entire first term of Thomas Jefferson. We did not declare war, though Tripoli did. The only military forces we deployed in this First Barbary War were the Navy and Marine Corps.

Was that a war or a squirmish? For that matter, what do we call our two-year long conflict (1798 - 1800) with France under our second president, John Adams? Historians frequently refer to it as our "quasi-war" with France. Is a quasi war something like a squirmish? Both words have a "qu" in them.

From the beginning of our republic in 1788 until after World War II, we have often dispatched the Navy/Marine Corps team abroad to deal with crises, many times for extensive, protracted engagements. We never declared war in any such case.

March 8, 1965, my ship's guns (I was Weapons Officer of USS Higbee (DD-806)) stood by at Danang, Viet Nam, to provide gunfire support (if needed) for 3,500 Marines who went ashore there. These were our first combat forces, later reinforced by another 20,000 Marines.

Had our intervention remained at that level, using the Navy and Marine Corps, we would probably have been better off.

Twenty years later, using the Navy/Marine Corps team was no longer an option. Not that they couldn't have handled Panama and Grenada just fine, but the policy of the day required that it be a "joint" operation, whether needed or not. So the Pentagon jumped through hoops to find something for the Army and the Air Force to do.

Let's not go down that path in Libya.