Free Republic

In case you thought it was just your imagination, it’s not:In the Age of Obama, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; no matter how hard Big Guy works for the American people:Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Libya was abandoned on Saturday due, I guess, to all that “tranquility” that we’ve generated in the Middle East; it must be irritating the local Islamic terrorists. Reports are that our embassy staff was evacuated to Tunisia via motorcade as the U.S. Department of State 747 was unavailable for takeoff because the Tripoli airport was, uh, closed due to...

They’re the four-legged veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – military war dogs, doing everything from sniffing out explosive devices on the battlefield to providing companionship to soldiers during wartime. Three of these dogs traveled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday with the same service members they served with on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan, raising awareness about the need to reunite military war dogs with their handlers. Since 9/11, over 3,600 dogs have served in the military, with close to 2,000 dogs currently serving through various branches of the military. Earlier this year, the Army said 578 dog...

When the Americans (“and allies”) took Kabul, they discovered that one of the clichés about Afghanistan was wrong. It was not true that there were no Jews left in that country. An elderly gentleman emerged from the rubble, a certain Ishaq Levin (may he rest in peace). All these years he had kept his head down, but was now under the impression he could come out.It turned out there was another one. Perhaps gentle reader has heard the story, which was made into a little play in London. Zabolon Simenov (various spellings), carpet dealer and kebab-seller, also survived the...

Afghan who killed three U.S. Marines in 2012 to serve over 7-year prison sentence By Rowan Scarborough An Afghanistan man has been given a 7-1/2 year prison sentence for murdering three U.S. Marines in a forward operating base in Helmand Province in August 2012.

Taliban insurgents halted minibuses in western Afghanistan, identified 14 Shiite passengers and shot them dead by the side of the road .. marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ... The Taliban, like other Sunni extremist groups, view the country's minority Shiite community as apostates, and have targeted Hazaras

Beau Bergdahl has been returned to “active duty.” Apparently, that means a desk job while the Army considers what should be done with this young enlisted soldier. Bergdahl was held for five years by the Taliban since walking away from his post one night in 2009. President Obama greeted Bergdahl’s relieved parents in Rose Garden at the White House in a move widely criticized. And that was even before Americans learned that the Obama administration had traded young Bergdahl for five of the most murderous Taliban detainees from our facility at Guantanamo Bay. Duty. There seems to be much confusion...

It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defence that it had been consensual sex. But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an honour killing in the case – against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead. This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her...

The details of how Kerry defused the stalemate, based on accounts from a half-dozen officials familiar with the talks, reveals an Afghanistan closer to the brink than many outsiders may appreciate. It also illuminates rare foreign policy win for Kerry and for an Obama administration staggered by months of setbacks,

ISLAMABAD: Even though US Secretary of State John Kerry succeeded in brokering a deal to resolve the deadlock over the Afghan presidential election run-off, confusion still persists about the proposal of forming a “government of national unity”. On July 12, Kerry announced the agreement in the presence of both rivals Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul. “The winner of the election will serve as the president and will immediately form a government of national unity,” said Kerry. However, the top US official failed to explain the composition of the unity government. Kerry’s vague proposal has caused uproar...

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has finally broken his silence, using his first statement since being released from the Taliban to thank President Barack Obama for his support. "Sergeant Bergdahl is deeply grateful to President Obama for saving his life," said Bergdahl's new attorney Eugene Fidell. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Fidell said the former prisoner of war had authorized him to make that statement on his behalf. The exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners in U.S. custody has been controversial in part because several members of the Bergdahl's former unit have called him a deserter. They say he...

The summer of 2014 will go down in history as the season when America fell apart. Let’s take a tour of the disasters. Germany in 2008 enthusiastically hosted candidate Barack Obama for his so-called Victory Column speech. Now, Germans suddenly sound as if they are near-enemies of the U.S. Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly was furious that her cell phone was tapped by American intelligence agents. She just kicked the top CIA official out of Germany, further enraged that the U.S. had recruited at least one German official to provide intelligence on the German government. Polls show that Germans find Vladimir...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) If U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ever needs a new job, he could find himself at home in Afghanistan. After a recent diplomatic visit to the country, Kerry was hailed as a hero and a great politician, so much so, that some Afghans wished he would run for president. “John Kerry is the greatest American and the best friend of Afghanistan. He helped prevent this country from going to civil war two times,” 29-year-old Kabul shopkeeper Maqsood Parwani told NBC news. “I wish if we could elect him as our president, but we cannot so hope the American...

Joel Brinkley, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, lifts a rock and finds Afghan culture -- predatory and abusive, twisted out of human shape by a fusion of Pashtun and Koranic influences. Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me. "The soldiers didn't understand." All of this was so disconcerting that the...

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is to return to active duty with the US Army on Monday just four weeks on from his return to the United States after spending five years in captivity with the Taliban. According to the New York Times, Bergdahl will begin work at the Army North headquarters in San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston, the same base where he has undergone therapy and counseling to deal with his reintegration back to the West. The soldier will also meet with Major General Kenneth R. Dahl, who is investigating the controversial and still publicly unexplained circumstances surrounding his disappearance in...

Less than a week after allegations of fraud prompted election officials in Afghanistan to delay the results of that country's presidential runoff election, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Friday for the two remaining Afghan candidates to allow the results to be audited. "There's ample evidence of fraud," said Graham, according to the Wall Street Journal. "There needs to be an audit that is recognized by the Afghan people as legitimate and by the international community as legitimate." A failure to end the standoff, McCain warned, "could put not only the political environment in Afghanistan into a...

When Gen. John Campbell, the Army’s vice chief of staff, appeared last year at a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, he cited his son’s experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan to answer a senator’s tough questions about a troubled intelligence technology system. This week, after an inquiry by The Associated Press, the Army acknowledged that Campbell misspoke about his son’s unit, omitting some key facts as he sought to defend a $4 billion system that critics say has not worked as promised. Campbell faces another Senate hearing Thursday morning, this one on his nomination to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan....

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — In a new salvo in the propaganda war with the West, a previously unseen photograph of what appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl smiling alongside a senior Taliban commander was posted to a Twitter account associated with the Afghan Taliban.

In a stunning display of callousness, the Defense Department has announced that thousands of soldiers — many serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan — will be notified in the coming weeks that their service to the country is no longer needed. Last week, more than 1,100 Army captains — the men and women who know best how to fight this enemy because they have experienced multiple deployments — were told they’ll be retired from the Army. The overall news is not unexpected. The Army has ended its major operations in Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan. Budget cuts are...

Afghan presidential contender Abdullah Abdullah has claimed victory in last month's poll, despite results giving a lead to his rival, Ashraf Ghani. Addressing supporters in the capital, Kabul, Mr Abdullah repeated claims that the election was marred by fraud. US Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier warned against a power grab, amid reports that Mr Abdullah was planning a "parallel government".

Four NATO troops have been killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, the ISAF confirmed. The blast also killed two Afghan policemen and at least 10 civilians, local police said. Some reports say the NATO soldiers killed in the attack were from the Czech Republic. Earlier Ziaul Rahman Sayedkhili, a senior police officer in the eastern province of Parwan, said the blast had killed six NATO servicemen. He said a joint ISAF-Afghan force was deployed to the village of Qalandar Khil to investigate a rocket attack on a military base, which happened two days ago, and was targeted...