Free Republic

On the campaign trail, Senator Marco Rubio has been pushing a media narrative that he is the most “serious” foreign policy candidate. It’s an odd position since he missed all but one of the 19 votes connected to the National Defense Authorization Act last year! But far more damaging than his missed votes is his inability to learn from our past national security mistakes. Whether it’s Libya, border security, or major security gaps in our visa and refugee programs, when he has voted, it’s often on the side of misplaced liberal ideals and illegal immigrants instead of America’s One disturbing...

The proposed major military assault into Syria holds considerable risk for Turkey, not the least of that being a possible accidental escalation of hostilities with Russia, but it now seems unavoidable if Ankara is not to see a major disaster, not only wasting more than five years of intense effort to overthrow the Syrian Gov-ernment of President Bashar al-Assad, but also to avert the unfettered escalation of the Kurdish war to wrench a large part of Turkey away from Ankara to create a new Kurdish state which would link with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. Already, Turkey has paid an enormous...

A judge in New York on Monday ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to post $10 million in cash or bond while they appeal a jury's finding that they supported terrorist attacks in Israel, Reuters reported. At a court hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge George Daniels said the defendants must also deposit $1 million each month pending the appeal of a February jury verdict worth $655 million in favor of 10 American families. The order came a week after the Obama administration took the unusual step of urging Daniels to "carefully consider" the PA’s...

The biggest drop in Chinese stocks in eight years Monday is another sign that Beijing’s efforts to prop up prices have failed. Moreover, the interventions themselves have made China’s equity markets more volatile and damaged their credibility in the long run. To stabilize stock prices, Beijing has employed numerous techniques, including suspending trading for a time on well over half of listed A-shares. Short sales were banned, and major shareholders were prohibited from selling. New initial public offerings were disallowed. China needs more professional participants in its equities markets. But why should institutions buy when the government can control if...

TRENTON, N.J. -- The pretrial intervention program offered to Ray Rice in the assault case involving his wife was granted in less than 1 percent of all domestic violence assault cases from 2010-13 that were resolved, according to New Jersey Judiciary data obtained Friday by "Outside the Lines." Rice and his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, were arrested on Feb. 15 and charged with simple assault after an incident at an Atlantic City casino. Janay's charges were later dropped, but on March 27, an Atlantic City grand jury increased Rice's assault charge to aggravated assault-bodily injury in the third degree causing bodily...

Hillary Clinton has been working full-time to control the story of her time as Secretary of State. That was the point of her clunky, largely unread book, and the point of her awkward, gaffe-laden book tour. Clinton argues (plausibly) that she wanted a more activist approach to Syria than that served up by her boss. She argues (implausibly) that she wasn’t really sold on the “reset” with Russia. As to Libya, Clinton’s priority must be to duck, to the extent possible, the political fallout from the killing of our ambassador and three other Americans by terrorists in Benghazi. But what...

Gennady Zyuganov (head of the Communist Party of Russia)at the meeting with journalists on Monday made several constructive ideas: the introduction of a no-fly zone, border control and cross-border corridors for Russian volunteers, riding on Donbass. "We have a full right member of the security Council to declare a no-fly zone over this territory and to contribute to any military objects, which will appear on this territory, were eliminated," he said. He added that this must be done for the security of the local population. "To watch them from planes shot of the city and civilians, to look at the...

Russian military forces are “pulsing the border” and making a “run toward Ukraine” — but pulling up well short — in their “training exercise," U.S. officials told NBC News on Thursday. But it’s not clear whether the Russian forces are actually preparing to cross the border into Ukraine or simply putting on a “show of force,” the officials said. They added that there is no strong indication that the Russians are preparing to invade but still stick by their earlier estimate that from their current positions, these troops could launch a complex invasion and be inside Ukraine in less than...

Polls: Americans Repeatedly Say "No!" to U.S. Intervention in Ukraine 21 March 2014 In polls taken over the past few weeks by a number of opinion survey and news organizations, the American people have sent a remarkably unified message to President Obama and the U.S. Congress: “Stay out of Ukraine!” Despite being peppered with a constant onslaught of dramatic news video footage from Kiev and the Crimea, as well as a visit to the Obama White House by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, and the usual stable of policy “experts” from the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign...

A costly strike by carworkers in South Africa was at last called off...

Syria intervention and where they stand! US Rep Blain Luetkemeyer 573-635-7232 -Leaning: no. US Senate Roy Blunt 816-471-7141 -Leaning: no to troops on the ground. US Senate Clair McCaskill 816-421-1639 -Leaning: I have no idea, no one answered the phone and her voice mailbox was full. Go figure! I encouraged no anything in regards to intervention.

President Obama has turned to Congress to save him from staggering political isolation on the global stage. It is an isolation that is the inverse of the promise of a passionate and reciprocal multilateral embrace that carried him into office. Asking Republicans to rescue him from a foreign policy catastrophe entirely of his own making is not a neat political trick. It dramatically cheapens the office of commander-in-chief. Contrary to the President’s devious portrayal, therefore, the coming vote is so much more than a response to “this attack” or “the massacre” in Syria. The President had the audacity to ask...

From Egypt to Syria to Iraq and beyond, the Obama administration is determined to show it will only go so far to help save nations in chaos from themselves. President Barack Obama has long made it clear that he favors a foreign policy of consultation and negotiation, but not intervention, in the persistent and mostly violent upheavals across the Mideast. And he appears determined not to deviate this week even to help reverse turbulence in Egypt, one of the United States’ most important Arab allies. U.S. officials say the Obama administration delivered pointed warnings Tuesday to three main players in...

On U.S. military intervention in Syria's civil war, where "both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line 'Allahu akbar' ... I say let Allah sort it out." So said Sarah Palin to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. And, as is not infrequently the case, she nailed it. Hours later, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, at length, echoed Palin: "Those who are urging the US to get more deeply involved in the Syrian conflict now are living in the past." Four fundamental changes make it "no longer realistic, or even desirable, for the...

The supposed “responsibility to protect” has taken America into a war on the side of the ultimate killers of innocents. (See also "Rebel Libya: ‘Brothers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, now is the time to defend your land!" on the Tatler.) In the absence of any evident national interest justification for bombing Libya, the Obama administration is said to have been motivated by the so-called responsibility to protect — or “R2P” per the wonkish English acronym. In American discussions, “R2P” has quickly come to be associated with Obama advisor Samantha Power. But “R2P” did not emerge full-grown from the...

Welcome to the pretzel logic of liberal environmental protection: In order to "save" owls, the Obama administration is going to shoot them dead. This is not -- I repeat not -- an Onion parody. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House released a big fat policy turkey: its final critical habitat rule for the endangered northern spotted owl. The Obama plan will lock up 9.6 million acres of land (mostly, but not all, federal) in Oregon, Washington and northern California. This is nearly double the acreage set aside by the Bush administration. Thousands of timber workers (along with untold thousands...

he Turkish parliament on Thursday approved a government proposal to use military force against Syria “when necessary” in response to Wednesday’s cross-border bombardment that killed five civilians. In an emergency meeting of parliament convened on Thursday morning, the Grand National Assembly voted 320-129 in favor of a bill calling for “a one-year-long permission to make the necessary arrangements for sending the Turkish Armed Forces” into Syria in light of the “negative impact of the ongoing crisis in Syria on our national security, as well as on regional stability and security.” Turkey’s deputy prime minister Besir Atalay explained that the bill...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was elected to his first term with help from the Tea Party in 2010 and who is sometimes cited as a potential GOP vice presidential pick, lauded the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for following their respective visions instead of asserting “narrow American interests” in a speech today on U.S. foreign policy. In remarks at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Rubio sketched the advances made globally since the end of World War II as a result of America’s leadership. “The purpose of the institutions we established, from...

ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Luis Martinez report: Two days ago President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA. The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries. The president made this announcement in a letter...

Taking a hard line on a U.S. foe in the Middle East, Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich indicated Wednesday that he would unilaterally "replace" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because he is running a "bad dictatorship." The former House speaker was asked on a morning radio show in Chicago to offer a "30-second" answer to what he would do about Syria, where anti-government protests have led to a violent crackdown. Gingrich said, "I can give you a three-second answer. Replace Assad. I mean Assad is our enemy. He is an ally of Iran. It is a bad dictatorship. It is to...