Free Republic

Federal Priorities: A new report shows we have spent $70 billion on climate change since 2008 while our strapped military is ordered to become energy-efficient. Imagine weapons that don't harm the environment. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took to the Senate floor Thursday to decry the green agenda being imposed on the military by the Obama administration at the same time the defense budget is being sacrificed on the altar of runaway deficit spending.

Impunity for criminals and disarmament for victims Defenseless Brazilian women vs. a young American mother prepared to defend herselfBy Julio Severo What happens when a robber invades a house at night and finds a young woman? In Brazil, here is what happens, according to several Brazilian newspapers: Gazeta Digital of April 29, 2012: Man invades a house and rapes a 21 year-old woman, in Cuiabá. The crime happened Sunday morning (29). After the victim’s husband left for work, the robber took advantage to enter in the house. According to the police, he raped the woman and fled taking a...

Leadership: Lost in his gay marriage flip-flop was the president's claim that our armed forces fight for him, not their country. It was like following his spiking of the football over the Osama bin Laden kill with an end-zone dance. Few caught the revealing Freudian slip during President Obama's interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News in which he said he no longer considered what he described to evangelist Rick Warren in the election year of 2008 as the "sacred union" of marriage to be just between one man and one woman. But there it was, from the lips of...

The Obama Record: The president's defense strategy creates a hollow force and worsens our readiness crisis. Big cuts mean weakening the military's ability to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the president's victory lap in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of the Navy SEALs "an attempt to shore up his national security credentials, because he has spent the past three years gutting our military." Indeed he has. "He cut the F-22, future combat...

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN, the news network's founder, Ted Turner, complained that a double standard exists between the U.S. and Israel being allowed to possess nuclear weapons while Iran is expected to be nuclear-free, as he suggested that all countries dispose of their nuclear weapons to persuade Iran not to build such weapons. After host Piers Morgan asked Turner what he would do about Iran if he were President, the CNN founder absurdly complained that Iran was being held to a different standard than Israel, without either he or Morgan noting Iran's support...

National Security: The president tells his Russian counterpart to give him space until November when, if re-elected, he'll be able to give away missile defense and the rest of the store without political consequences. It seems President Obama has a space program after all, one in which the Russians cool it on the dismantling of U.S. missile defenses until the least transparent administration in history can razzle-dazzle, smoke-and-mirror and divide-and-conquer its way into a second term. One of the subtexts of the 2012 campaign has been the fear of what a second-term Obama will do unfettered by the need to...

The Obama Record: The president's shredding of the Constitution began at the Preamble's provision for the common defense. He gave away our missile defense to appease Moscow and betray our allies. Derided as Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative announced by President Reagan on March 23, 1983, was to be the fulfillment of his dream of being able to deter or even defeat a nuclear missile attack, rather than avenge one, with a multilayered system of defenses aimed at enemy missiles in all stages of flight. SDI and its concept of defending America and its allies were attacked as destabilizing...

Security: A deputy defense secretary tells Congress that the administration is indeed considering giving Moscow sensitive Aegis ballistic missile defense data. We've gone from "trust but verify" to "appease and surrender." Brad Roberts testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee Tuesday that the Obama administration was actively considering giving Moscow classified missile defense data to allay Russian concerns about the capabilities and intent of our proposed ballistic missile defense system based in Europe to guard against missiles launched from Iran. Roberts testified that the administration believes "cooperation could be well-served by some limited sharing of classified information of a certain...

Defense: Beijing announces another double-digit jump in military spending as the U.S. disarms and sacrifices its defense budget on the altar of entitlement spending. We have many duties; the Chinese have but one target. China announced this week that its military budget this year would rise 11.2% on top of a 12.7% increase last year. This does not bode well as the U.S. defense budget and force levels decline as a result of cuts mandated by our failure to come to grips with runaway spending. As China ramps up military spending, President Obama's budget contains $487 billion in cuts that,...

White House drive for ‘nuclear zero’ imperils the worldPresident Obama is working to realize the leftist dream of unilateral nuclear disarmament. This will leave the United States pitifully weak and create conditions for catastrophic deterrence failure. The White House has told the Pentagon to study options for reducing the number of U.S. nuclear warheads by as much as 80 percent. The future nuclear force could have as few as 300 weapons, far below the cuts to 1,550 required by the START 2 nuclear treaty with Russia. It would give America an arsenal about the size of France's Force de Frappe...

National Security: The commander in chief who once pined for a world without nuclear weapons has decided a world without an American deterrent is a good start, seeking to cut the U.S. arsenal by 80%. In a world where rogue states with unstable leadership are either in possession of or pursuing nuclear weapons, and with Russia rearming and China emerging as a world military and nuclear superpower, President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to consider cutting U.S. strategic nuclear forces to as few as 300 deployed warheads — below the number believed to be in China's arsenal and far fewer...

Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind. It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity. He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 — linchpin of our missile defense — might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority. Section 1227...

Defense: The administration announces a leaner version of our military involving the cutting of tens of thousands of ground troops as a leading defense contractor closes a major plant due to budget cuts. In an unusual appearance at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Obama laid out his plans for a "leaner" military based on the need "to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength in the world." In other words, failed domestic policies require us to cut our military in a dangerous world. Obama insisted that even after the currently budgeted $460 billion...

National Security: Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers. Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Imagine a scenario in the not-too-distant future when an Iranian Shahab missile mated with an unexpectedly ready nuclear warhead is test-fired and detonates somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The next day Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as China announces a blockade of Taiwan. The administration's defense cuts, or shifts in priorities as President Obama would have us believe, leaves us woefully unprepared for the unexpected in...

Gun turn-in programs (“Annual gun swap hits its mark,” Local, Dec. 20) are the first step to disarm the citizens of the United States. They are designed to desensitize people to the action of giving up our arms at the request of the government. The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment in recognition of the God-given right to a person’s self-defense. As they had just fought a war against a tyrant, they recognized the need for every citizen to have the means to defend himself against criminals both local and governmental. Presently there is a modicum of respect (fear) of...

"The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday North Korea poses a threat to U.S. and South Korean security and it faces a choice between accepting international demands it scrap its nuclear arms or facing deeper isolation. "North Korea continues to pose a direct threat to the security of both our nations," Obama said at a White House news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak. "The choice is clear for North Korea: If Pyongyang continues to ignore its international obligations, it will invite even more pressure and isolation. If the North abandons its quest for nuclear weapons...

There is a risk of a radioactive leak after a blast at the southern French nuclear plant of Marcoule, media reports say. One person was killed and three were injured in the explosion, following a fire in a storage site for radioactive waste, Le Figaro newspaper said. The plant is in the Gard region. It is a major site involved with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and operates a pressurised water reactor used to produce tritium.

This law be the result of a transparent, ample, and profound discussion by Venezuelan society, explained United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) lawmaker Freddy Bernal, president of the National Assembly’s bi-partisan commission established to draft the Law of Firearms Control and Disarmament. Alfredo Roberto Missair, United Nations representative in Venezuela, (the law) “is a fundamental aspect of (guaranteeing) Human Rights” in Venezuela because a policy of disarmament “looks to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of age, sex, or social condition.” The law, not expected to be passed until sometime next year, (will) include the Law of Disarmament, the...