Free Republic

The United States has the most potent military in terms of firepower and operational capacity in history. Our military overthrew Saddam Hussein and crushed the Taliban in a matter of weeks. Our forces can direct a rocket from Nevada through a window in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and nimbly set up nearly 20 Ebola treatment centers in Liberia. Yet this same military, as writer James Fallows recently pointed out in the Atlantic, has not won its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya or anywhere else in the last 20 years — if winning means creating a stable, capable and ideally democratic governing...

The wife of a Georgia police chief is in critical condition after her husband shot her in the bedroom of their suburban Atlanta home just hours into the new year. Peachtree City Police responded to the home of Chief William McCollom at approximately 4:17 a.m. ET, Lt. Mark Brown said in a news conference. McCollom called 911 saying he accidentally shot his wife, Margaret McCollom, with his service weapon, according to Sherry Lang, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman. The victim was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center after officers arrived, according to Brown.

A Heart warming story you may have seen before, but it's well worth seeing again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/agwnwqCdwl8

On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson directed the Warren Commission to “evaluate all the facts” in the brutal November 22 murder of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, on a downtown Dallas street in broad daylight. Reduced to its bare essentials, the investigation sought answers to three fundamental questions: Who, why and how? “Why” was entirely contingent on “who,” and that depended on “how.” Thus, the linchpin of the Warren Report—and every subsequent investigation—has always been precisely how Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza. That is the finding from which all the important answers flow; mishandle that question and the...

The United States is being infected by Chagas, a deadly disease spread by the feces of a parasite nicknamed the 'kissing bug'. It bites sleeping victims, ingests the blood and defecates on them; patients then unknowingly rub the feces into open membranes.

Health problems, low education levels and criminal histories make seven out of 10 young people ages 17 to 24 unfit to become soldiers, according to the U.S. Army.

Veterans Day is soon approaching and there are many restaurants and companies who want to thank our veterans by providing them with discounts or a free meal. To those companies offering veterans a free meal or discount, the military community gives a collective thanks

Americans are inundated with media coverage and politicians warning them of dire threats: Ebola, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the war on Christmas. The truth, though, is that the most-hyped threats are often not actually that threatening to Americans, while larger dangers go mostly ignored. That should tell you something about how our political system and media can distort threats, leading Americans to overreact to minor dangers while ignoring the big, challenging, divisive problems - like climate change - that we should actually be worried about. Obsessing about possible threats is something of a beloved national pastime...

As the credulous are joyous over the safe return of Sgt. Bowe Berghdal after nearly five years of Haqqani captivity, and as every hour the Internet traffic swells with questions about whether Bergdahl was a deserter, sadly, if it’s the latter he probably won’t have too much to worry about. Not only because Obama, Hagel, and others occupying dark corners of the administration now have a vested interest in Bergdahl and the POW narrative that they’ve wrapped him in, and not only because of the parades and keys to the city that will be proffered, but because the Pentagon’s track...

(This is an update of a previous posting) In Memory of a Fallen Comrade I write this in memory of one we left behind, MSG William B. Hunt, U.S. Army Special Forces, MIA, November 4, 1966. It is an account of the sacrifice he made to his country, to his comrades, and to the Vietnamese people. In November 1966, SSG Hunt and I served together at Special Forces ODA Camps under Detachment B-32, 5th Special Forces Group, Tay Ninh Province, in the Republic of Vietnam. Hunt was with ODA-322 at Camp Suoi DA, and I was assigned to ODA-323 at...

Let me be clear about what I’m writing here. This is not only a story about disgraced U.S. Army Special Forces major James Gant. This is also a story about a story about Jim Gant. On March 24, David Wood at Huffington Post published a glowing profile of Gant that carefully, even elegantly, talks around the shocking reality of Gant’s rise and fall as a commando officer in the Afghanistan war. Gant had invited his girlfriend Ann Scott Tyson, a Washington Post reporter, to accompany him and his team on secret missions in a remote province in eastern Afghanistan in...

Recently, an associate offered the following observation with regard to the likelihood of war in the immediate future: “The big guys like to play chess with the world. It's the biggest game. The bankers need ups and downs and wars to make money. The military needs wars to exist. The politicians need both to exist.” Whilst he was reiterating a concept we have discussed on many occasions, it occurred to me that I have never seen the subject defined so succinctly, nor so informatively. Let’s break it down: The bankers need ups and downs and wars to make money Just...

The shooting in the Gates Four neighborhood sounds to me like a case of very bad judgment by both parties involved. A female friend told me that two women would never have gotten involved in this mess. I agree. Unchecked testosterone is written all over this one, if we are to believe the accounts of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, which is still investigating. Ronnie Mitchell, the department's legal adviser, said at a news conference Wednesday that the sheriff would probably not pursue felony charges, though lesser charges might be considered. The "serious injury" required for a felony assault charge...

If you were one of the lucky few guys who found any .22 long rifle on the shelves in the last thirteen months, Winchester needs you to check your stockpile. It turns out they double-charged two lots of their M22 plinking/target ammo, and these accidental .22 Super-Duper Magnums can blow your gun up and ruin your chiseled, movie-star good looks. Make the jump for the recall details . . . From Winchester’s Recall Page: 1/28/2014 Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling two (2) lots of M*22™ 22 Long Rifle 40 Grain Black Copper Plated Round Nose rimfire ammunition....

January 30, 1968 is a very important date in American History, but very few Americans are aware it. Since the birth of our Republic, there have been a number of significant events that have drastically affected our country’s future development and wellbeing. Some of these events were immediately recognized as significant but others took more time, and the damage caused to our country by the “Butterfly Effect” spawned by the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War is just now beginning to be realized by a few of us who were there. Those who were there know all too well...

By his third year as chairman of the Alabama Republican organization, Mike Hubbard believed his party had just about everything it needed to win control of the State Legislature. He had a plan: an 88-page playbook for the 2010 campaign, with detailed, district-by-district budgets and precise voter turnout targets. He had candidates: doctors, lawyers and small-business owners, most of them political novices recruited with an eye toward the anti-establishment fervor roiling the country. What Mr. Hubbard did not have was enough money.

The family of a Charlotte teenager who was shot and killed outside a Chadbourn home in December 2011 has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the weapon. Jasmin Thar, 16, died after being shot Dec. 23, 2011, while standing outside a relative's home. Two other women were injured by the same bullet. The lawsuit was filed Monday in Mecklenburg County Superior Court. It is seeking damages from Remington, the maker of the Model 700 rifle that fired from inside a neighbor's home, killing the teenager.

WASHINGTON — The deal looked sketchy from the start. To outfit Afghanistan’s security forces with new helicopters, the Pentagon bypassed U.S. companies and turned instead to Moscow for dozens of Russian Mi-17 rotorcraft at a cost of more than $1 billion. Senior Pentagon officials assured skeptical members of Congress that the Department of Defense had made the right call. They repeatedly cited a top-secret 2010 study they said named the Mi-17 as the superior choice. Turns out the study told a very different story, according to unclassified excerpts obtained by The Associated Press.

The American flag that flies over the Pickens County Sheriff's Office will be raised high tonight despite an order by President Barack Obama that flags across the country be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela. Sheriff Rick Clark told The Greenville News that he has ordered the flag be raised at the end of today because he said the honor of lowering flags to half-staff should be reserved for Americans. "The flag at half-staff is for Americans' ultimate sacrifice for our country," Clark said. "We should never stray away from that." The...

Daniel Defense recently submitted a commercial to FOX to be played during the 2014 NFL Super Bowl XLVIII. Though the video doesn’t showcase one of the company’s popular DDM4 rifles, this paid advertisement spot was rejected by the NFL. The commercial, which focuses on themes of personal protection and fundamental rights, was originally created by Daniel Defense to run in any network TV station at any time. According to a statement from FOX to Daniel Defense, “Unfortunately, we cannot accept your commercial in football/Super Bowl spots due to the rules the NFL itself has set into place for your company’s...