Free Republic

WARSAW, Poland — Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died Saturday in a plane crash in Russia, was a one-time anti-communist activist who teamed up with his twin brother to take his country in a nationalist, conservative direction. His opponents, however, viewed him as narrow-minded, provincial and overzealous in his drive to cleanse the country of the influence of former communists. And he drew criticism from human rights groups for trying to stop a gay-rights parade through Poland's capital. Kaczynski was a firm friend of Poland's Jewish community, which has enjoyed a revival in recent years after it was nearly wiped...

<p>Indian diplomats close to Singh say the lackluster results show how far the relationship has fallen since Bill Clinton and the two Bushes transformed a strained Cold War rivalry into a close strategic partnership between the world's largest democracies. Obama's predecessors built a relationship around trade negotiations, joint military exercises, and ad hoc coalitions for humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the Indonesia tsunami. Despite his reputation for uniquely pushy diplomacy, it was George W. Bush who concluded the landmark deal that recognized India as a legitimate nuclear power and opened the door to the sale of civilian nuclear technology to India. No single American move has done more to demonstrate Washington's respect for New Delhi as a rising and equal power. Now Obama, who came to office promising to respect U.S. allies, is backpedaling on that deal, to the growing chagrin of the Indians.</p>

(IsraelNN.com) The Obama administration has cancelled airport security restrictions on 14 terror-related countries, including American Muslim allies such as Saudi Arabia. Instead, the United States is relying on "real-time” intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks in the air. American security officials several months ago clamped down on travelers from Cuba and 13 Muslim countries after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed through security systems and tried to blow up a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit. Shortly afterwards, new regulations required travelers with passports from those 14 countries to undergo a thorough body search before boarding.

WASHINGTON -- What is it like to be a foreign ally of Barack Obama's America? If you're a Brit, your head is spinning. It's not just the personal slights to Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- the ridiculous 25-DVD gift, the five refusals before Brown was granted a one-on-one with The One. Nor is it just the symbolism of Obama returning the Churchill bust that was in the Oval Office. Query: If it absolutely had to be out of Obama's sight, could it not have been housed somewhere else on U.S. soil rather than ostentatiously repatriated?

New report shows England's growing disillusionment with its once greatest ally. British parliamentarians have finally realized that the "special relationship" between London and Washington no longer exists--if it ever did. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has published an unexpectedly lively report urging British diplomats and ministers to be "less deferential" to the U.S. No more groveling, then. Not that it will stop Prime Minister Gordon Brown from being starry-eyed in the presence of President Obama when he visits the U.S. in a few days' time. The committee, whose members are about to disband before the general election campaign,...

Passover is an unfortunate time to be asking what has gone wrong between America and Israel. Is today's strenuous disagreement over Israel's West Bank housing policy the real problem, or is this controversy merely a symptom of deeper, more profound differences?Partly because of the extraordinary secrecy surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent White House meeting with President Obama, much remains hidden from public view. Nonetheless, after 14 months in office, Obama has made clear he sees the U.S.-Israeli relationship very differently than any of his predecessors.Consider, for example, Obama's September 2009 U.N. General Assembly speech, profoundly anti-Israeli, and to a...

Barack Obama’s decision to postpone his trip to Indonesia and Australia — to a democracy with the world’s largest Muslim population and to the only nation that has fought alongside us in all the wars of the last century — is of a piece with his foreign policy generally: attack America’s friends and kowtow to our enemies. Examples run from Britain to Israel. Early in his administration, Obama returned a bust of Churchill that the British government had loaned the White House after 9/11. Then Obama gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of DVDs that don’t work on British...

The UK government needs to be "less deferential" towards the US and more willing to say no to Washington, a group of MPs have said. The Commons Foreign Affairs committee also said it was wrong to speak of "the special relationship" with the US, as it was fostering other alliances. However, the MPs did agree that the link between the countries was "profound and valuable". The Foreign Office said the two nations share a "unique" bond. The committee said the phrase "the special relationship" did not reflect the "modern" Anglo-American relationship. It was originally coined more than 60 years ago...

On this March 24th day, the 11th anniversary of the NATO (Allied) bombing of Serbia, their loyal friend and ally through every war, no matter what the cost, the Western Allies need to be reminded of who the Christian Serbians were and are. Sincerely, Aleksandra Rebic ***** The Serbian Orthodox Chapel of Saint Ilia on Kajmakcalan Mountain. The Chapel was built in 1925 and stands at the borderline between Greece and Macedonia. ***** Kajmakcalan = KYE-MAHK-CHA-LAHN ***** The Battle of Kajmakcalan, fought on the Macedonian Front in September of 1916, resulted in a victory for the Allies against the Central...

Don't take my word for it...look at how the American President has treated Israel every day of his Presidency. Last year, during the UN General Assembly, Obama refused to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, when he finally did meet with him...he did so without live cameras. This year, after Israel openly insulted Vice President Joe Biden by announcing expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have taken one of the hardest lines in recent memory. Obama cancelled several military shipments, including bunker buster bombs, to Israel in retaliation. And today, when...

I have written this post to explain why President Obama is so desperate to pass health care legislation, seemingly regardless of the cost to the Democratic Party. The reality is that President Obama owes his success and his hold on power more to three Marxist groups than he does to the Democrats. The three organizations, Communist Party USA, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and Democratic Socialists of America, all worked with Barack Obama for years and helped get him elected. Now they want payback. All three organizations have campaigned hard for "socialized" or "Single Payer" health care.

If the Obama administration continues to betray Israel, will any ally ever trust us again? We've been viewed as a fickle (if mighty) partner at least since the 1970s, when we abruptly dumped allies from Saigon to Tehran. Now the White House not only delights in insulting our closest traditional ally, Britain, but has intensified its diplomatic pogrom against Israel -- our only respectable ally in the Middle East. President George W. Bush was mocked for shooting from the hip, but this administration fires with its eyes closed. Obama's unbalanced actions shrivel confidence among allies around the globe -- partners...

The contretemps between President Obama and Israel needs to be seen in a broader global context. The president who ran against "unilateralism" in the 2008 campaign has worse relations overall with American allies than George W. Bush did in his second term. Israelis shouldn't feel that they have been singled out. In Britain, people are talking about the end of the "special relationship" with America and worrying that Obama has no great regard for the British, despite their ongoing sacrifices in Afghanistan. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has openly criticized Obama for months (and is finally being rewarded with a...

The contretemps between President Obama and Israel needs to be seen in a broader global context. The president who ran against "unilateralism" in the 2008 campaign has worse relations overall with American allies than George W. Bush did in his second term.

Almost 30 years after losing a war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina is once again warning Britain that it still wants back what it calls the Malvinas. Argentina is now angry over a British company's oil exploration off the windswept islands in what it considers its own South Atlantic backyard. Although nominally democratic, the unpopular Kirchner government in Buenos Aires has claimed that the sparsely settled islands are a symbolic matter of Spanish-speaking pride throughout Latin America — and is theirs because the islands once belonged to Spain in the 19th century. In response to all this, the Obama administration...

Almost 30 years after losing a war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina is once again warning Britain that it still wants back what it calls the Malvinas. Argentina is now angry over a British company's oil exploration off the windswept islands in what it considers its own South Atlantic backyard. Although nominally democratic, the unpopular Kirchner government in Buenos Aires has claimed that the sparsely settled islands are a symbolic matter of Spanish-speaking pride throughout Latin America -- and is theirs because the islands once belonged to Spain in the 19th century. In response to all this, the Obama administration...

British troops will remain in Afghanistan for the next five years, according to the head of the Army. General Sir David Richard expects combat in the country to “trail off in 2011” but said the military would stay to provide training and support for Afghan troops. His comments come as Operation Moshtarak, a major joint offensive against Taliban strongholds, appears to be drawing to an end.

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Sarah Palin's knock 'em out of the ballpark Nashville Address last night is already causing major tidal waves on thie other side of the Pacific Ocean.In her Tea Party address, Gov. Palin took the Obama Administration to serious task over plummeting US-Japan relations. She specifically mentioned that Japan is the KEY AMERICAN ALLY IN THE PACIFIC and clearly crossed swords with Barack Obama over his treatment of this critical bilateral tie.Anyone who knows the Japanese media will know that when Japan is specifically talked about by name and particularly by a major US leader, ears perk up and the...

ISTANBUL, Feb. 5, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today pledged surplus mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles along with expanded access to classified information to U.S. allies to help in combating the threat of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates conducts a news conference in Istanbul after meeting with fellow NATO defense ministers and those of other countries supporting the effort in Afghanistan, Feb. 5, 2010. DOD photo by Cherie Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The United States will now do whatever we can within the limits of U.S. law, and as soon as we...