Free Republic

Video Link Here

Good for them. Surrendering to people who practice beheading religiously is ill advised. This whole mess is yet another of the innumerable reminders that international forces placed around Israel to absolutely nothing and surrender or run away at the first sign of trouble. That’s why the touted EU initiative to put international forces between Israel and Hamas is a stupid and destructive venture.The Philippine military said Monday that a UN peacekeeping commander in the Golan Heights should be investigated for allegedly asking Filipino troops to surrender to Syrian rebels who had attacked and surrounded their campGen. Gregorio Pio Catapang...

One couple knows all too well the pain suffered by the parents of James Foley, the American photojournalist executed on camera last month by the Islamic State. Billy and Karen Vaughn also lost their son Aaron Carson Vaughn in 2011, when the SEAL Team Six soldier's Chinook helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. Now the couple are calling on President Barack Obama to step down, citing his reaction to the Foley video and 'lack of leadership' in confronting ISIS.

Reports this past week identified two Americans – Douglas McCain from San Diego and Abdiraaman Muhumad from Minneapolis — who were killed by Syrian rebel groups last weekend as they were fighting with ISIS.A new claim was made on a Syrian rebel Twitter feed this morning saying that an additional three Americans have been killed fighting with ISIS near Ghouta. A video purporting to show the three dead Americans was posted on Youtube (WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO): Yet another American from Florida, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, conducted a suicide bombing for Jabhat al-Nusra — the official Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria —...

(Reuters) - Nervously eyeing Russian naval maneuvers and military flights near their borders, the three ex-Soviet Baltic states fear they may emerge as the next geopolitical flashpoint after Ukraine in a confrontation that could test their cherished Western ties. With President Barack Obama heading to Estonia on Wednesday on a visit designed to underline U.S. solidarity with the Balts ahead of a NATO summit in Wales, the three tiny republics are renewing calls for troops on the ground and military help.

The US reportedly targeted Ahmed Abdi Godane in a military strike on Somalia overnight, but the Pentagon has kept a tight seal on the operation other than to acknowledge that one took place. Godane runs al-Shabaab, the Somalian radical Islamist terror network that took credit for the massacre in a Kenyan mall a year ago, and Godane is widely believed to have run that operation: Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement late Monday only that “we are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate.” Godane...

Wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, Irina Dovgan is forced to stand at a Donetsk intersection with a sign identifying her as a spy and reading: "She kills our children." A woman berates and then kicks Dovgan as a man holding a rifle looks on. Images of the scene that unfolded in eastern Ukraine in August sparked outrage and concern for the initially unidentified woman. Dovgan's name was eventually revealed and her story told, including to RFE/RL's Russian Service in an exclusive interview.

On Sundays, our parish sings the Beatitudes, from the Sermon on the Mount. But this time, the words reached through the millennia to highlight the headlines of today: wars, beheadings, and the jihadist genocides of Christians and people of other faiths. Stories I wrote during the past couple of months seemed to attach themselves to a beatitude (https://bible.org/seriespage/beatitudes-matthew-51-12), or blessing: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of their faith, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Later on, I...

As NATO meets to develop a new strategy to follow up with their Obama-led non-strategy on Russia, perhaps they should ponder what the old, successful strategy with Russia was that served NATO so well. “On the one hand,” said the blueprint that helped beat back the Russian threat during the Cold War, NSC 68, “the people of the world yearn for relief from the anxiety arising from the risk of… war. On the other hand, any substantial further extension of the area under the domination of the Kremlin would raise the possibility that no coalition adequate to confront the Kremlin...

Russia has lost the hybrid war in Donbas. Ukraine army has defeated the terrorists. That is why Kremlin was forced to move its regular troops to Donbas, Ukraine Defense Minister Valery Heletej writes in Facebook Sept. 1. The regular Russian troops are already in Donbas intending to increase its ground and advance on new territories of Ukraine, he says. A big war is on our threshold. Unfortunately, in such war the number of casualties may be in thousands and even tens of thousands, he says. Citing unofficial sources, the minister says Russia has already threatened us to use tactical nuclear...

The Iraq War incident has been a controversial political and diplomatic case from start. On Tuesday, a Washington jury begins deliberations on whether the four guards are guilty of murder, among other charges.

Can the UK protect itself from the danger presented by its citizens returning after fighting for ISIS — perhaps to continue the war at home? Prime Minister David Cameron believes that British security forces have the authority to take temporary steps to block their return, but wants Parliament to pass a law granting more permanent power to impose a de facto exile on British nationals who fight for ISIS and other terror groups:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday temporary enhanced powers for police designed to keep Islamist extremists in Britain from traveling...

A survey conducted by YouGov.com showed that by a 4-1 margin, Americans favor military strikes against Islamic State. The poll's results are the opposite of a similar survey taken earlier this year regarding military action against President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria. Washington Examiner: Some 63 percent of Americans back a Pentagon strike against the terrorists to 16 percent who don’t. A year ago, those numbers were reversed when Americans were asked about striking Syrian troops commanded by President Bashar Assad, with 60 percent opposing military action and 20 percent supporting it. The flip-flop comes as television news is...

U.S. military forces attacked the extremist al-Shabab network in Somalia Monday, the Pentagon said, and a witness described ground-shaking explosions in a strike that reportedly targeted the group’s leader. Al-Shabab had attacked the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 67 people a year ago this month and the U.S. had targeted planners of the bloody assault. There was no immediate comment from al-Shabab and U.S. commanders were waiting to determine the attack’s outcome. “U.S. military forces conducted an operation in Somalia today against the al-Shabaab network. We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide...

Militant group Hamas would sweep Palestinian elections if they were held today after its support soared during seven weeks of war with Israel in Gaza, an opinion poll published on Tuesday found. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said the poll showed Islamists clearly leading presidential and parliamentary polls for the first time since Palestinans last voted eight years ago, when Hamas won power in Gaza. Most Palestinians surveyed said they preferred Hamas's strategy of armed struggle against Israel rather than peace negotiations, which are favored by Fatah, once the dominant Palestinian political movement and one backed by...

To Obama, the retrenchment of the West was not only inevitable but to be welcomed. In just the last five or six years the world has been fundamentally transformed. Instead of the old accustomed Western-inspired postwar global order, crafted and ensured by the United States and its European and Japanese partners, there is now mostly chaos, from Ukraine to Syria to the South China Sea. Or, rather, there may be emerging new rules, given that we are still frozen in a Wild West moment, when everyone in the saloon has drawn his six-shooter, paused, and is wondering what happened to...

Islamist Boko Haram insurgents have overrun much of a northeastern Nigerian town after hours of fighting that has killed scores and displaced thousands of residents, several security sources said on Tuesday.

While the Islamic State in Iraq> and Syria (ISIS) continues to instill fear in people in Iraq, a National Investigation Agency dossier reveals that more than 300 Indian youth have been recruited by the ISIS and Pakistan based Tehreek-e-Taliban.According to a report by Times Now, the dossier mentions that many youth are being recruited from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and are being trained in Pakistan, Syria and Iraq.Report also suggest that the youth, who are recruited, may carry out massive attacks across the country.However this is not the first time that Indians are being recruited by the ISIS....

The UN says it has received reports from Iraq that "reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale". Deputy Human Rights Commissioner Flavia Pansieri said Islamic State (IS) was believed to have committed systematic and intentional attacks on civilians.

Adam Michnik: "Putin wants to restore the Soviet Empire. Ukraine need to help in any way possible " Kiev should help, including arms, convinced Polish intellectual, historical leader of the Polish dissident Adam Michnik, writes Andrea Tarkuini in an article published in the newspaper La Repubblica. Putin's Proposals "dangerous and unacceptable: it is a new Brezhnev doctrine of limited sovereignty," said Adam Michnik, the censor is not with reference to Inopressu. In the same way as Ukraine has no right to dictate the laws on the structure of the Russian Federation Moscow, and Russia has no right to tell other...