One of the brilliant things about the Mises Institute is it's extensive online library. Within recent months, I have used this library to study revisionist history on nearly every war ever fought by the US government. Also, I looked for any rebuttals to the arguments presented. (one star reviews for Thomas Dilorenzo's works are great places to start, although there are endless threads on the subjects respectively (Including long discussions about "Hitler, Chruchhill, and the Unnecessary War" elsewhere, equally engaging.
I have been able to see the two sides to every war except for the campaign against the Barbary Pirates. I googled any possible alternative views on the subject, and couldn't find any (Note: I did this for a long time, asking the users of Mises.org is a last resort) . Robert Higgs mentioned the Barbary campaign once, claiming it was waged in the interest of certain merchants up north. Whether this is true or not, it isn't a perfect rebuttal to the alleged necessity of the engagement.
If America were a "free society" at the time, would it have to have been constantly subject to the depredations of the State sponsored thugs? Was there more to be gained from paying them off than engaging them?
Is there ANY literature on the subject in the Mises Library?
The Barbary campaign was simply a way for the merchant class to get its defense costs subsidized by American tax payers. It was the beginning of the long tradition of the American military advancing the interests of American businesses around the world.
If America had been a free society, American vessels would have paid to fly the flag of a foreign power that either a.) had relations with the Barbary States or b.) would provide protection from them. In the 12th Century the English navy did exactly that. It paid Genoa to allow its ships to sail under the protection of Genoa's flag, the St George's Cross, which eventually became the flag of England as well.
In the absence of State subsidized navies, private merchant defense navies would be created which merchants would hire.
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