Free Republic

Europe "must take its fate into its own hands" faced with a western alliance divided by Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday. "The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told a crowd...

Nile Gardiner said that NATO leaders acted in an "absolutely appalling" way toward President Trump. Gardiner, an aide to late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said he was disgusted at leaders who were caught smirking and chuckling during Trump's speech. He criticized Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel for appearing to laugh when Trump spoke about the need for nations to pay what they owed to NATO. Gardiner called the actions of Bettel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel "absolutely appalling." Macron and Bettel could be seen smirking at each other as Michel and Spanish Prime Minister...

The husband of Luxembourg's gay Prime Minister Xavier Bettel has been mingling with the wives and girlfriends of other world leaders during the NATO conference. Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, joined the likes of US First Lady Melania Trump in Brussels on Thursday while their partners were off discussing world matters. The First Gentleman, who married his Prime Minister husband in 2015, posed for photos with the group of women at Royal Castle of Laeken on Thursday evening ahead of a dinner especially for spouses.

Bombard's Body Language Trump NATO Shove in slo-mo reveals reciprocated man-hug... ***Strictly my Opinion*** Original Video(s): https://youtu.be/bhBcgB_GZD4

Merkel, May, Marcon, other ‘leaders’ of the West, get out of the fraught-with-lies, time-wasting Democrat/global elite/mainstream media-inspired fight against Trump and into the battle that matters most— fight for survival against Islamist Terror It was an iconic picture worth framing, one that should never be allowed to pass into obscurity. Here were the so-called Western ‘leaders’ on public display just three days after the horrific Islamist terrorist attack in Manchester, gathered together for a photo-op at NATO’s new $1.2 billion headquarters in Brussels, a safe and fortified bunker for the elite while their people remain vulnerable to the horrors of...

President Donald Trump on Thursday lectured a group of leaders from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over not contributing their "fair share" in defense spending. Standing beside Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Trump blasted the nearly two-dozen member countries that have not met their "financial obligations" to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," said as the other leaders stood in awkward silence. "We should recognize that with...

Speaking in Brussels Thursday morning against the backdrop of the newly unveiled Article 5 and Berlin Wall Memorials, President Donald Trump strongly urged NATO leaders to significantly increase defense spending, saying it is unfair for members states to rely on American taxpayers to fulfill European obligations. Further, he called on members to provide a new focus on terrorism. "The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATO’s eastern and southern borders. These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very...

President Trump departed from prepared remarks Thursday to comment on the ostentatious new NATO headquarters in Brussels at a dedication ceremony with world leaders. "I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost," Trump said, bringing attention to the glass structure. "I refuse to do that, but it is beautiful." In fact, the building cost an astounding $1.23 billion, according to a budget released by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The alliance bragged that the structure is also a "green building for the future." "The environment and sustainability have played a major role in the design process. The new...

The NATO alliance and European leaders are going out their way to win President Donald Trump’s favor during his Wednesday visit to the alliance’s head of state summit. The summits will reportedly focus on how the alliance can increase its counter-terrorism efforts, and how each country can reach its pledged spending target. Trump has voiced significant ire at alliance countries for failing to reach their spending targets, and at one time called the alliance “obsolete” for not focusing on the fight against the Islamic State. “There will be an effort to make sure Trump feels comfortable with the alliance and...

A senior White House official told Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent in Washington on Thursday that US President Donald Trump wants to set up a NATO-style security organization in the Middle East. The official, who spoke with a small group of journalists and did not want to make his name public, said Trump is going to announce the formation of the regional security organization during his visit to Saudi Arabia. The framework and structure of this organization will be established after eliminating ISIS to bring stability and security to the region through a joint security coalition that includes many of...

NATO’s military leaders are laying the groundwork to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to train local forces locked in fierce battles with militants. The move comes as alliance leaders shape and debate a multi-year plan to protect combat gains in those countries and eliminate safe havens where extremist groups might plan attacks against the West. “I think what we’ll see is that NATO will continue with a fairly modest contribution in the near term and that political leadership in the coming months will discuss the potential for NATO assuming a greater responsibility in Iraq,” Joint Chiefs...

NATO is scrambling to tailor its upcoming meeting to avoid taxing President Donald Trump’s notoriously short attention span. The alliance is telling heads of state to limit talks to two to four minutes at a time during the discussion, several sources inside NATO and former senior U.S. officials tell Foreign Policy. And the alliance scrapped plans to publish the traditional full post-meeting statement meant to crystallize NATO’s latest strategic stance. On May 25, NATO will host the heads of state of all 28 member countries in what will be Trump’s first face-to-face summit with an alliance he bashed repeatedly while...

[UPDATED with Sec. Stackley comments] WASHINGTON: The Navy is seriously considering derivatives of foreign designs and the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter for its new frigate, after three years pursuing an upgraded version of its current Littoral Combat Ship. The shift has shaken up the industry, panicking some players, while others quietly reposition: Wisconsin’s Marinette Marine, which currently builds the 3,500-ton Freedom variant of the LCS, may instead offer an Americanized version of the FREMM, a 6,000 to 6,700-ton frigate built for the French and Italian navies by Marinette’s parent company, Fincantieri. If so, Marinette would probably part ways with...

Delays in adapting the Eurofighter jet for air-to-ground operations could make it impossible for Germany to fulfill its promise to contribute to NATO's rapid reaction force in 2018, a German government report seen by Reuters suggests. Originally developed for air-to-air combat, Airbus's Eurofighter was only later adapted for bombing, the role in which Germany had planned to use it next year in its contribution to the NATO Response Force. Any delay would be a blow to the German armed forces, which are in the middle of an investment program designed to strengthen their ability to play a larger role in...

Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming to Washington, DC, on May 16 loaded for bear.  He has an ambitious agenda and apparently feels he can achieve it all because he holds “trump” cards against the President of the United States. Erdogan and his proxies have publicly said they want to convince the United States to jettison its budding alliance with the Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that has become the tip of the spear in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this point, they will encounter resistance...

An Interview With Wallace Bruschweiler: a Conservative View on Current Affairs Originally published in The Liberty Web President Trump is now more than 100 days into his presidency, but there are still many controversies over his administration’s policies. Supportive views of Trump’s policies are rarely reported, especially in the mainstream media. At the beginning of Trump’s presidency we interviewed Wallace Bruschweiler, a security consultant who has a staunch conservative stance on current political issues. From Obama to Trump Profile Wallace Bruschweiler A quasi-linguist and an expert on counter-terrorism and national security, operating in Europe, the Middle East and North America...

As they used to say way back when in the long Ottoman twilight, the Turk is the sick man of Europe. Following this weekend's Caliph-for-Life referendum, the Turk is sicker than ever. But he's no longer of Europe, and instead is exiting for a destination dark and catastrophic for almost all his neighbors. Sultan ErdoÄŸan - who, a mere 15 years ago, was banned from holding political office - has now succeeded in dismantling almost every defining element of the Kemalist republic. What replaces it will be a crude strongman state in service of Islamic imperialism. I have read a...

US president Donald Trump called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on winning the referendum boosting his powers, the White House said on Monday. The call was first reported by Turkish state media, one day after Erdogan won over 51 percent in Sunday's vote. "Trump called Erdogan tonight (Monday) and congratulated him on his success in the referendum," Turkish presidential sources said, quoted by the government run Anadolu news agency. The reaction from Mr Trump contrasts with EU leaders who have been reserved in their reaction to the narrow victory while monitors expressed concern over...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t just win his constitutional referendum — he permanently closed a chapter of his country’s modern history... Whether they understood it or not, when Turks voted “Yes”, they were registering their opposition to the Teşkilât-ı Esasîye Kanunu and the version of modernity that Ataturk imagined and represented. Though the opposition is still disputing the final vote tallies, the Turkish public seems to have given Erdogan and the AKP license to reorganize the Turkish state and in the process raze the values on which it was built.

More Winning… You’re Going to Get Tired of Winning… During the 2016 campaign Donald Trump complained that NATO countries were not contributing their fair share to the alliance. He was right. The United States pays more than any other country to prop up the alliance. Via CNN Money On Wednesday NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference at the White House that allied spending was up $10 billion because of President Trump. This was after Trump repeated his request for NATO countries to keep their side of the agreement.