The United States and military action in Libya

Re Obama’ speech last night and US involvement in Libya – it’s interesting that the opening lines of the US Marines hymn are:

From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea.

And interesting, too, that Darna, the next town west of Baida, in the thick of the current action, was where the US fought its first recorded land battle: the Battle of Derna in 1805.

Then, Arab, Greek and Berber mercenaries fought under U.S. General William Eaton, who had marched 500 miles across the Libyan desert from Alexandria, to capture the city in the First Barbary War.