Free Republic

"Congress must now vote to support the first steps of what will be a long march toward victory," said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Following this clarion call, 71 House Republicans bolted to join 85 Democrats in voting no to U.S. funds to train and arm Syrian rebels. Why the hesitation? Because our strategy in Syria is to rely on a Free Syrian Army that has been the least effective force in that civil war, and untrustworthy to boot. Units of the FSA have handed their U.S. weapons over to ISIS. Yet these "feckless" rebels, says Sen. Bob Corker, constitute "our...

Should any Republican step to any microphone and announce he has changed his mind on global warming, the press will hail him as a hero. He has taken new evidence, processed it, and changed his mind. Should any Republican do the same on gay marriage, tax increases or a host of other matters, the same will happen. The media heralds changed minds, particularly when the mind changed is to the right of center and the change moves the person to the left of center. The ability to process new data, reinterpret existing data and reach different conclusions has value to...

The so-called Islamic State has left destruction everywhere that it has gained ground. But as in the case of the tribal Scythians, Vandals, Huns or Mongols of the past, sowing chaos in its wake does not mean that the Islamic State won't continue to seek new targets for its devastation. If unchecked, the Islamic State will turn what is left of the nations of the Middle East into a huge Mogadishu-like tribal wasteland, from the Syrian Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. And they will happily call the resulting mess a caliphate. It is critical for United States to put together...

“God created war,” theorized Mark Twain, “so that Americans would learn geography.” That’s as true today as it was two centuries ago. How many of us would be able to find Yemen, Somalia and Mali on a map if not for the conflicts raging in those lands? These days war also presents an opportunity to learn a little history and theology. But to do that, you have to separate the factual from the fanciful. In his primetime address to the nation last week, President Obama acknowledged that in the current era, “the greatest threats come from the Middle East and...

Last week at the inaugural summit of the organization, In Defense of Christians, founded to help the most persecuted religious communities in the world today, Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world, Senator Ted Cruz was heckled and booed, and decided to walk off the stage. This is how he began his speech: "Today we are gathered at a time of extraordinary challenge. Tonight we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight, we are all united in defense of Jews." All of 117 words -- about the killing of Christians -- later, Senator Cruz...

Cheikh Malek el-Khazen here explains Israeli-Lebanese relations. He is heir to the House of Khazen, of the Lebanese nobility. What is the general Lebanese opinion on Israel?Officially, Lebanon is at a state of war against Israel. Currently, the borders are being supervised by UNFIL forces (mainly forces from European and Asian countries) in addition to the Lebanese army. Lebanon is a small country, but it comprises of 18 recognized religious sects. The main two religions are Christianity (the Maronite Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East) and Islam (Shi'a and Sunni). There...

The West and moderate Middle Eastern states fear ISIS and rightly so. It combines terror techniques with territorial ambitions more effectively than any group since the Bolsheviks. While many focus on the ISIS’ strengths, they neglect to point out that concerted effort could annihilate them. ISIS currently has the weaknesses of both a sovereign state and a terror organization. This could change rapidly as they coalesce, but right now, they are very vulnerable. Age old strategies established by Sun Tzu and others will work. In Art of War, the ancient Chinese master strategist wrote that to defeat an enemy, find...

These days I live in a state of almost continual amazement, bedazzled by the things progressives believe. Earlier this week the New York Times had to print a correction which is probably the number one all time winner in a long line of their recent corrections: “Correction: September 8, 2014 An earlier version of a summary that appeared with this article misstated the former title of Dick Cheney. He was vice president, not president.” Seriously, someone was hired to and does write for the major progressive publication in America who thought that Dick Cheney had been our president. And what...

The rising clamor over the beheading of two Americans, and rapidly sinking polls, forced President Obama to reassure the nation last week he had a plan to deal with the Islamic State. He did some of what he had to do, but only some, and so most military analysts believe the expanded airstrikes will not be a sufficient match for the size and weaponry of the terrorist army. They miss the point. The disjointed speech wasn’t really about terrorism and launching a new war. It was about saving Obama’s presidency. He is sinking fast and could soon pass the point...

In Defense of Christians, the nonprofit organization that has made protecting Christians in the Middle East its mission, challenged media reports Friday that Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was booed offstage at their inaugural Summit Gala Dinner Wednesday for supporting Israel. A 30-second YouTube clip from the dinner shows Cruz declaring to a restive audience: "I will say this, that I am saddened to see that some here, not everyone, but some here, are so consumed with hate …" At the mention of the word hate, guests at the gala became loud enough to drown out portions of Cruz's voice. He...

Resident Obama’s vow to destroy ISIS rings hollow and sets the course for another American misadventure. Along with allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, he refuses to grasp that security can’t be purchased on the cheap. The cancer has metastasized to spawn terrorist groups and cells on every continent financed through business fronts, extortion and donations. Those recruit fighters from the United States, Britain, France, and all the way to Australia, kidnap westerners and Africans for ransom, and commit far reaching acts of wanton violence. American bombings in Syria and Iraq will slow down ISIS but hardly destroy...

Resident Obama addressed the nation this past Wednesday night to outline his strategy for combating ISIS. Having declared the War on Terror over, he referred to "terror" in various forms 18 times in his speech. The problem is that so many real-world facts directly contradict what President Obama said in his speech. A man who claims often to not know certain facts because he has not seen the news has clearly not been reading the paper. In his speech, the president said, "It is America that helped remove and destroy Syria's declared chemical weapons so that they can't pose a...

Look at the map below. You'll see four regions of "Iraq and Syria" that the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" express no desire to conquer: Why is that? All four of these areas are where non-Sunni Muslims predominate. They include Southern Iraq (Shiites), Northwestern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan), Syria just north of Lebanon (Alawites and Shiites) and the area surrounding the Golan Heights (Druze and Shiites). So why would ISIS fight so bitterly for largely Kurdish Erbil and Mosul, yet make no claim to what is officially Kurdistan? Because Erbil and Mosul are Iraqi centers of Christendom, the real target...

It’s increasingly difficult to navigate the web of transitory enemies and allies in the region. Try figuring out the maze of enemies, allies, and neutrals in the Middle East. In 2012, the Obama administration was on the verge of bombing the forces of Syrian president Bashar Assad. For a few weeks, he was public enemy No. 1 because he had used chemical weapons on his own people and because he was responsible for many of the deaths in the Syrian civil war, with a casualty count that is now close to 200,000. After Obama’s red lines turned pink, we forgot...

Try figuring out the maze of enemies, allies and neutrals in the Middle East. In 2012, the Obama administration was on the verge of bombing the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. For a few weeks he was public enemy No. 1 because he had used chemical weapons on his own people and because he was responsible for many of the deaths in the Syrian civil war, with a casualty count that is now close to 200,000. After Obama's red lines turned pink, we forgot about Syria. Then the Islamic State showed up with beheadings, crucifixions, rapes and mass murders...

Wednesday in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, former Vice President Dick Cheney said our Israeli and Arabs allies in the Middle East no longer trust the United States and "deeply believe" the "Untied States has been supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood" because of the way "the United States has conducted itself over the last few years."

Last week, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako issued an impassioned plea to the international community to speak out and take action on behalf of persecuted Arab Christians and other minorities. This latest statement came a month after 120,000 Iraqi Christians were forcibly displaced from their homes. Sako, Iraq’s senior Christian cleric, called the systematic persecution “a real genocide” and called for “decisive steps” to put pressure on decision-makers at home and abroad to ensure a free, safe life for all in Iraq.In Washington, DC, a bipartisan and ecumenical conference starts Tuesday evening, focusing on the deteriorating situation facing millions of...

MANILA, Philippines — The Indian commander of the United Nations' (UN) peacekeeping force broke his silence on the Philippine military's accusations that he misguidedly ordered besieged Filipino troops to surrender their arms to rebels in Golan Heights over the weekend. In an interview with a Noida-based newspaper, UN Disengagement Observer Force Commander Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha criticized the defiance of the 40 trapped Filipino peacekeepers as "non-professional." Singha, meanwhile, called what the Armed Forces of the Philippines dubbed the "greatest escape" of 40 troops from Position 68 nothing but an "act of cowardice." "The higher UN echelon as well...

Abdullah Ghavami Chahzanjiru and Salman Ghanbari Chahzanjiri were hanged in southern Iran on August 6, 2014. According to the Daily Beast, it appears that they were executed for consensual sodomy. Their deaths are part of a wave of executions in Iran, with more than 400 in the first half of 2014 alone, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights. So why is a possible wave of anti-gay violence in Iran not being investigated by the Obama administration, headlined by the national news media, and protested in mass by college professors? The answer to that question is actually very simple: The...

illustration/The Hill The politics of terrorism have returned with a vengeance for the midterm elections. National security dominated the first election cycles after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with Democrats fearful of being labeled unpatriotic if they criticized then-President George W. Bush. The Republican advantage eroded years later as public opinion soured against the Iraq War. By the time President Obama sought reelection in 2012, he was able to tout the killing of Osama bin Laden to portray Democrats as the party of strength in foreign policy. But now, with the 13th anniversary of 9/11 just days away, Obama...