Free Republic

As I noted here, Fred Thompson’s supporters and campaign are missing golden opportunity after golden opportunity while they focus on tearing down other candidates instead of building Fred up. Fred continues to put forth a very conservative agenda and no one is hearing about it because Fredheads aren’t telling them. I’ll try to help them again, gratis. Take, for instance, Fred’s skepticism of the latest National Intelligence Estimate, the one that contradicts the idea that Iran is working on nuclear weapons. Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Tuesday he’s skeptical of a new report that Iran halted its nuclear weapons...

As we've discussed before, everything that happens, anywhere in the world is now being described a "a defeat for George Bush." Two such "defeats for George Bush" came to light this past week - and I'm not even counting West Virginia's loss to Pittsburgh which helped vault LSU and Ohio State into the BCS title game in January. First came the news that John Murtha (D-Pa) who has been mentor to, and ally of, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) had changed his mind on Iraq. For years Murtha has been among the most outspoken critics of the war in Iraq. According...

This inspiring tribute to our armed forces, created by a 15-year-old girl, should be required viewing for all Americans. -click source link above- (might want to have kleenex nearby)

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have announced they're planning to descend on Washington, DC this March to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like." Iraq Veterans Against the...

Living conditions for the armed forces will remain substandard for 20 years unless improvement work is given a higher priority, MPs have said. The Commons public accounts committee said half of the Ministry of Defence's housing for single soldiers was poor, as well as 40% of its family homes. Committee chairman Edward Leigh said the government should "get its priorities straight". But Defence minister Derek Twigg said improvement work was "making progress". 'Tennis courts' The committee noted that the MoD had cut £15m from its estates management budget in 2006/07 after "unforeseen rises in the cost of fuel and other...

Presidential Race: The war for the soul of the Republican Party was won in 1980 by Ronald Reagan. Presidential candidates who want to re-wage the conflict in 2008 will only weaken the GOP against the Democrats' nominee. In the aftermath of Vietnam, Watergate and a Jimmy Carter presidency that rendered America an economic and foreign policy basket case, Republicans discovered a tried-and-true recipe for electoral success. They would stand for three sets of principles: • Lowering high taxes and stemming the growth of government in order to revive the private economy, lower inflation and interest rates, and generate jobs. •...

The Editors on Fred Thompson & 2008 on National Review Online It’s obvious why conservatives see something to like in Thompson. He has offered clear, conservative ideas on fixing Social Security, policing immigration, and expanding the military. We encourage the other candidates to follow his lead. Read the whole thing. Really. Read it all.

Pinups for Vets Supporting the Troops: Part 1 By Daniel Muniz Gina Elise wanted to show her appreciation to the people who has served their country in our armed forces and especially to our troops deployed overseas and to all of our injured vets in VA hospitals. So she decided to create the "Pin-Ups For Vets" project which consists of calendars and posters featuring herself as the model for all of the photographs. Gina Elise chose the pin-up art that was popular back in the forties as the central theme of all her modeling. Since the pin-up girls of that...

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the interview. I linked to this yesterday in my Republican race Q&A, but the interview itself merits a little post of its own. In no particular order, a few observations: 1) The long form interview allowed Fred to express his knowledge and thoughts on the war on terror. He was impressive. Believe...

There is quite a lot of interesting, but wild, speculation running around the blog-o-sphere, progressive circles and just plain dinner conversation these days about whether BushCo will allow a peaceful and constitutional transfer of Executive power in the ’08 elections. Unless or until George Bush appears on our TV boxes one night, wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie with his hands sweatily clasped in a desperate death grip on top of his desk in the Oval Office, telling us that some catastrophic event, whether man-made or natural, has just occurred somewhere, and he must, for the...

American foreign policy has been nothing like as interventionist as its critics like to think. Critics of George W. Bush's Middle East policy are hoping for a change in direction once America's 43rd President has left the White House. The foreign offices of Europe all hope for more multilateralism. More realpolitik. Less sabre-rattling. The critics have a problem, however. In reality, Team Bush has largely been following European approaches to foreign policy for most of the world's troublespot nations. Take Pakistan. The “realist school” couldn't honestly disapprove of any aspect of Bush's dealings with Islamabad. American taxpayers have financed a...

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said Wednesday the United States needs to increase military spending to better finance its troops and intelligence, calling national security the top obligation of a U.S. president. "There are a lot of people in need, there are a lot of things that need funding, there are a lot of government programs and so forth, but preserving the security and safety of the American people is the No. 1 obligation of any government and the No. 1 obligation of any people," he said during a stop at Café Diem in downtown Ames. Thompson portrayed himself as...

Twenty-five years ago this week, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Ronald Reagan wrote that America was set apart from other nations in an uncommon way. He said that it was his belief that ‘a divine plan placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the Earth, who had a special love of faith and freedom.’ America’s love of faith and freedom is as strong today as it was 25 years ago, or indeed 225 years ago. We are in a political season now, and sometimes it might feel that there is much...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson brought his message of beefing up the military and securing the nation's borders to the conservative Florida Panhandle on Friday as he worked to bolster his poll numbers. Thompson, who trails the four top Republican presidential candidates in Florida, told about 100 supporters that the average 20-year-old soldier in Iraq has a better understanding of national security than the average 20-year-veteran of Capitol Hill. And the U.S. should not pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan with "our tail between our legs. We will regret it," said Thompson, who held a private meeting earlier with about...

Defense: Fred Thompson wants a million-man ground force and more modern equipment on the ground, in the air and on the water. The arsenal of democracy needs some retooling. After the Vietnam conflict, the U.S. military was depleted and exhausted. Then came Jimmy Carter and by the time Ronald Reagan came along we had planes that couldn't fly and ships that couldn't sail for lack of maintenance. The Gipper rolled up his sleeves and built his 600-ship navy, gave the Air Force the latest fighters and bombers and an Army capable of deploying half a million troops for Desert Storm...

Would anyone like a free dinner at Golden Corral? Well, there is an easy way if you are an American military veteran. Golden Corral just announced this year’s Military Appreciation Monday will be November 12, 2007, from 5 to 9 pm. For the past 6 years, Golden Corral has been honoring the US Military with a free “thank you” dinner and beverage at any Golden Corral restaurant on Military Appreciation Monday (first Monday after Veteran’s Day), to honor any person who has ever served in the United States Military. In the past the only requirement to receive the free meal...

Many active duty military are praising Fred Thompson, as the conservative leader they want as the next Commander in Chief. Typical of these comments is this one from a soldier in Ohio: "As a soldier, I know there is some pressure to not get involved in anything political, but as a current member of the finest Army to have ever existed, and a Combat Veteran of the crucial Iraq campaign, I feel it is my duty as a patriotic American to see a good conservative succeed our current commander and chief. Every Soldier wants a leader that they can proudly...

Mclean, VA - Today on the steps of the State House in Columbia, SC, surrounded by numerous veterans, Senator Fred Thompson was joined by Major General James Livingston and Lieutenant Colonel Joe Repya to launch Veterans for Fred Thompson. Major General James Livingston, a 33 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, will serve as the National Co-Chair of Veterans for Fred Thompson. On May 2, 1968, while serving as the Commanding Officer, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, he distinguished himself above and beyond the call of duty in action against enemy forces and earned the Congressional Medal...

Bedford – Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson yesterday said America should not be a global policeman, but it must remain the world's leader. Thompson, a former actor and U.S. senator from Tennessee, said America is facing a global war on terror that transcends the ongoing conflict in Iraq. He said the country must have a foreign policy based on prevention as well as deterrence. He warned that Iran was well on its way toward having nuclear weapons. "Nobody knows exactly when that might be," Thompson said at a Politics and Eggs breakfast at the Bedford Village Inn. "We don't know...

Norway's Chief of Defense Sverre Diesen said Monday that if the current loss of spending power continued, Norway's national defense would be history in 25 years. Diesen presented Minister of Defense Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen with FS 07 - the study of the next 20 years of Norway's Defense - on Monday. "If the loss of spending power continues the Defense will be so weakened in 25 years time that only limited units such as the Coast Guard and the Russian border guard will be fully functional - an independent, national Defense will be history," Diesen wrote. The Defense chief also warned...

JB: Mr. Giuliani said: “We need a hybrid army, we need to look at nation-building as part of what we have to teach our military.” Nation-building? Do you agree with that? FT: Well I wouldn’t call it nation-building... You don’t build other nations. Sometimes if the ingredients are there you can assist other nations in doing some good things. JB: Well that gets to the heart of the difference between some of us conservatives and the neo-cons... Can you define for us, who really is the enemy? ...FT: The enemy is radical Islamic fundamentalism. Iraq is a part of a...

A majority of likely voters - 52 percent - would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53 percent believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows. The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised...

Diplomacy is doing nothing to stop the Iranian nuclear threat; a show of force is the only answer. WE MUST bomb Iran. It has been four years since that country's secret nuclear program was brought to light, and the path of diplomacy and sanctions has led nowhere. First, we agreed to our allies' requests that we offer Tehran a string of concessions, which it spurned. Then, Britain, France and Germany wanted to impose a batch of extremely weak sanctions. For instance, Iranians known to be involved in nuclear activities would have been barred from foreign travel — except for humanitarian...

...(Message to the younger crowd: those fine people are called ‘soldiers’ or ‘troops’. They are from a military organization known as the ‘Canadian Armed Forces’. Given how this poor group had been gutted for over a decade by neglect and outright targeting by the previous federal Liberal administration, I can forgive your failure to recognize them.)...

Last Monday was a maddening day. The swimming pool heater was not working right and when I wanted to get my nightly swimming exercise before bed, the water was a bit cool. Plus, the water heater was broken and my shower was barely tepid. I lay in bed sulking and then turned on the TV. Ken Burns's magnificent epic about American participation in World War II came on. There were American children being starved in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines. American Marines getting blown to pieces by Japanese shells on Iwo Jima. American soldiers fighting and freezing at the...

The invitation was on creamy stationery with fancy calligraphy: The Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran "requests the pleasure" of my company to dine with H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dinner is at the Intercontinental Hotel — with names carefully written out at all the place settings around a rectangular table. There are about 50 of us, academics and journalists mostly. There's Brian Williams across the room, and Christiane Amanpour a few seats down. And at a little after 8pm, on a day when he has already addressed the U.N., the evening after his confrontation at Columbia, a...

'You know," drawled Fred Thompson at a recent rally in Des Moines, Iowa, "you look back over our history and it doesn't take you long to realize that our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world." This is an interesting statement, and not only because Fred Thompson has a good shot at being the Republican nominee for president in 2008, and an outside chance of winning. It's also interesting because of who Thompson is. Fred Thompson is a Washington lobbyist. That's not what his campaign highlights,...

Some Democrats have decided to try to transform the military draft into what the Social Security issue was 25 years ago. Time and time again since the late 1970s, Democratic candidates and campaign committees sought to win the votes of seniors by raising questions about whether Republicans would dismantle Social Security if they ever won control of Congress. The Democrats’ scare tactics on Social Security were not without basis. Republicans opposed the creation of Social Security, and for more than a decade, many conservative GOP candidates and high-profile officeholders, including former Rep. Newt Gingrich (Ga.), bashed the system and berated...

IN THE SPRING of 1954, the US Senate convened hearings at the instigation of Senator Joseph McCarthy to press his anticommunist investigations into the Department of the Army. The hearings were broadcast live on television, and the American public was able to witness firsthand the tactics McCarthy used to intimidate his foes. At a critical moment in the hearings, a key governmental witness, Army lawyer Joseph Welch, rose to defend one of the junior Army lawyers whose career, Welch alleged, McCarthy had destroyed. Welch turned to McCarthy and memorably intoned: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have...

Mr. Chairmen, Ranking Members, Members of the Committees, thank you for the opportunity to provide my assessment of the security situation in Iraq and to discuss the recommendations I recently provided to my chain of command for the way forward. At the outset, I would like to note that this is my testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress. As a bottom line up front, the military objectives of the...

With its full-page “General Betray Us?” ad in the New York Times, MoveOn.org has once again put itself at the forefront of the antiwar movement. And if past patterns are any guide, a number of Democrats are embarrassed, and even angered, by MoveOn’s actions but are afraid to reveal the true extent of their feelings. MoveOn simply has too much fundraising clout — and a fear-inducing inclination to attack Democrats who stray from the MoveOn line — for many in the party to take it on...

Nearly six years after 9/11, what's striking is how little has changed in America - and in its war effort. And yet if we can't change ourselves, what are the chances that we can change others? When President George W. Bush declares that the Global War on Terror is "the concentrated work of generations," one has to wonder if he really means it. Certainly there's been little concentration on effective war mobilization, and other countries have noticed. As we look back to study wars that the United States has won - and why - the most obvious metric is the...

The ignominious fall of Senator Larry Craig casts new light on the importance of the nation’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning open homosexuals from military service. If preventing public sex in airport men’s rooms is important enough to justify the deployment of undercover cops, isn’t it similarly significant to avoid, at all costs, sexual encounters in military latrines? Imagine the impact on morale and unit cohesion if two guys from the same barracks engaged in toe-tapping hanky-panky (and perhaps much more) while occupying adjacent bathroom stalls in the military facilities? Of course, advocates for gays in the military will...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement after Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid signed a bill that implements the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission and makes our country safer and more secure: "Democrats have again kept their promise to the American people and showed why Americans trust them to keep the country safe," Dean said. "Even with Republicans blocking them every step of the way, Democrats implemented the recommendations of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission. President Bush and his Republican allies wasted years playing politics with our security. Republicans ignored these recommendations,...

AN EPIDEMIC of obesity could have serious consequences for America's economy and its ability to defend itself, according to a leading politician. Self-confessed "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee, a Republican Party presidential candidate, told a group of governors from the American South that the increasing numbers of people who were either over-weight or obese meant more and more people were having to take time off work for health reasons. And Mr Huckabee, who lost 110lb - nearly 8st - several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas, said he was concerned by reports that nearly two-thirds of American military personnel...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The U.S. must rebuild its military to fight global terrorism because leaders "took a holiday" in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War, undeclared presidential candidate Fred Thompson told war veterans Tuesday. "Some people in this country think if we can pull out of Iraq, our problems will be over," Thompson told the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "You and I know better than that." "Now we're stretched too thin, and our equipment is wearing out," said Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is expected to announce a decision soon on whether to seek the...

Fred Thompson, the all-but-announced Republican presidential candidate, suggested Tuesday that the nation was in denial when it comes to the threat of terrorism. "I don't think that yet as a nation we have come to terms with the nature and the extent of the threat facing this country," Thompson said while addressing the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City, Missouri. Calling terrorism "a global threat" to the United States, Thompson pointed out that he thought the United States was at a crossroads and told the veterans "it's time that we had a frank discussion in...

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." "And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was...

First the Marine Corps made Chuck Norris an honorary Marine. Now the Corps wants all Marines to follow in his footsteps. All Marines must now qualify for their tan belt in the Corps' version of martial arts by the end of 2007, Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said in a recent Corps-wide message. The move mostly affects those who joined before 2001, when the service made the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program part of basic training and the Basic School, said 1st Lt. Brian P. Donnelly, a spokesman for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. The Corps originally hoped to have all...

Scotland's biggest teaching union has voted by a clear majority to call for a ban on the armed forces targeting recruitment campaigns at schools. The move follows an emotional debate at the EIS annual conference in Perth. Supporters of the motion claimed the military was tackling a shortage of recruits by targeting impressionable teenagers in deprived areas. An Army spokesman said they were disappointed and would go into schools when invited by headteachers. Supporters of the ban claimed the military targeted teenagers with t-shirts, pictures of helicopters and even Christmas cards from the recruiting officers. Opponents at the conference...

FORT WORTH – Congresswoman Kay Granger Friday announced before a meeting of Downtown Rotary that she has launched a campaign to name one of the U.S. Navy’s new ships the USS Fort Worth in honor of the City of Fort Worth. Granger made her request in a letter to Secretary of Navy Donald Winter. The Secretary of Navy has personally selected the name of all new Navy ships since 1819 when Congress designated that responsibility to the secretary. “Fort Worth has a long history with the U.S. military as it protects America and defends freedom,” Granger said. “During the course...

Harmed Forces - In the homefront battle between militant pacifists in the East and passive militants in the West, Canada is the big loser Mark Steyn - March 26, 2007 It's the little news items that get you. This one wasn't particularly important to the Globe and Mail--page 18--which suggests that its findings weren't deemed especially unusual. It was an Ipsos-Reid poll on attitudes to the--well, I was going to say "armed forces," but that first word was among the topics up for discussion. There was some topical stuff about detainee abuse in Afghanistan, and then way down in the...

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- who in past campaigns has argued he would be a better advocate to the gay community than Sen. Ted Kennedy -- said Friday that he would not ask the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to apologize for calling homosexuality "immoral,'' saying that "people are entitled to believe what they want to believe.'' "I think he's already expressed his regret for what he said, and I'm not calling on any further action by him,'' the former Massachusetts governor said of Gen. Peter Pace's remarks. "I think people are entitled to believe what they...

The top U.S. military officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, doesn't plan to apologize for telling a newspaper that homosexuality is immoral. Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he supports the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. armed forces. The general also compared homosexuality to adultery -- behavior that is prosecuted in the military, he said. "My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace told the Tribune. "I believe that military members...

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported. Marine Gen. Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral, the newspaper reported on its Web site. "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way," Pace told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview. Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of...

U.S. salutes Canadian with Arlington burial: John D. Rode: Soldier receives U.S. citizenship posthumously -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decorated U.S. Army Sergeant John D. Rode was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honours yesterday. The Trenton, Ont.-born 24-year-old was laid to rest in the Washington, D.C., military burial ground as an American after being awarded citizenship posthumously last week. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Valentine's Day. Officials found citizenship application papers among his belongings. Sgt. Rode's family has been flooded with letters from soldiers with whom he served, said his aunt, Catherine Brooks, in a telephone...

WASHINGTON -- The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials. Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a large contingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security or reflect badly on Americans' willingness...

We need more troops, President Bush acknowledged in a news conference Wednesday. But do we need more troops in Iraq? The president announced his intent to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps just days after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld departed the Pentagon. I doubt the timing was coincidental. I'm among those who think this is a decision that ought to have been made on Sept. 12, 2001. We had 18 divisions in the active Army at the end of the first Gulf war. President Bill Clinton reduced these to 10. I thought at the time this was...

The NY Times Compares The U.S. Army To Islam Posted by Terry Trippany on December 15, 2006 - 14:18. I seriously didn’t know what to expect when I saw the New York Times profile on a Muslim woman who has joined the United States Army. Despite my expectations, or lack thereof, I had a pretty good feeling that it would be filled with the typical bombastic innuendo and mischaracterizations of the United States military that I have come to expect from a newspaper that that I admittedly loath to read. Thus I was not surprised to see the following at...

Navy rejects San Francisco for warship commissioning ceremony By: Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Navy has rejected plans to commission its newest and most powerful warship in San Francisco because of concerns that the city doesn't support the military. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter vetoed plans this week for a commissioning ceremony for the Makin Island in San Francisco, said retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, chairman of the citizens' commissioning committee. Instead, San Diego will host the ceremony in which the crew formally takes charge of the ship, Myatt said. Navy leaders were...