Interesting point not taken! First off, the beloved government was paying tribute to the Barbary states to keep our merchants safe. But that was taxpayer funded. Why not use the taxes to go kill them instead of paying tribute? I think killing them was moral and paying the tribute was not. That's what seemingly the politicians, navy admirals, marines, and Thomas Jefferson thought... but who are they?
Jacob says they were wrong, so we should have.... paid the ransoms? And the tribute? And told our merchants to go leave their wife behind and buy their own canons? Your own moral foreplay is destined to bring forth a bunch of hand-wringing whiners who just blather "peace" when the bad guys want to kill, maim, steal, and destroy things.
War isn't precisely moral... but it has its uses in the moral realm.
The next time our merchants are being captured and sold into slavery... maybe you should pipe up and tell the captors that you volunteer to take their place. You know, since war is such a bad idea.