Free Republic

As the calendar turns toward the final two years of the Obama Presidency, this is a moment to consider the world it has produced. There is no formal Obama Doctrine that serves as the 44th President’s blueprint for America’s engagement with the world. But it is fair to say that Barack Obama brought into office a set of ideas associated with the progressive, or left-leaning, wing of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment. “Leading from behind” was the phrase coined in 2011 by an Obama foreign-policy adviser to describe the President’s approach to the insurrection in Libya against Moammar Gaddafi. That phrase...

As the calendar turns toward the final two years of the Obama Presidency, this is a moment to consider the world it has produced. There is no formal Obama Doctrine that serves as the 44th President’s blueprint for America’s engagement with the world. But it is fair to say that Barack Obama brought into office a set of ideas associated with the progressive, or left-leaning, wing of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment. “Leading from behind” was the phrase coined in 2011 by an Obama foreign-policy adviser to describe the President’s approach to the insurrection in Libya against Moammar Gaddafi. That phrase...

In mid-September, while President Obama was fending off complaints that he should have done more, done less, or done something different about the overlapping crises in Iraq and Syria, he traveled to Central Command headquarters, at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. There he addressed some of the men and women who would implement whatever the U.S. military strategy turned out to be. (snip)If I were writing such a history now, I would call it Chickenhawk Nation, based on the derisive term for those eager to go to war, as long as someone else is going. It would be the...

A remarkable report by Anne Barnard of the New York Times this weekend confirms my multiple reports here at PJ Media about the increased alliance between the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.As Barnard reports: In northern and eastern Syria, where Mr. Assad’s opponents won early victories and once dreamed of building self-government, the nationalist rebel groups calling themselves the Free Syrian Army are forced to operate under the extremists’ umbrellas, to go underground or to flee, according to Syrian insurgents, activists and two top commanders of the American-financed F.S.A. groups. Two weeks ago...

US Mission in Havana to Become Embassy Amid Thaw HAVANA — Dec 27, 2014 By PETER ORSI A half-century after Washington severed relations with Cuba, the United States' seven-story mission looms over Havana's seaside Malecon boulevard as the largest diplomatic outpost in the country. Cuban guards stand at close intervals on the street outside, and islanders line up by the thousands each year for a shot at a coveted visa. The gleaming U.S. Interests Section suddenly is poised to become an even more important presence in Cuba as the two countries negotiate the first phase of their historic detente -...

President declares combat missions in Afghanistan are over. Jennifer Griffin reports on Obama's bold prediction [VIDEO]

The Obama administration hopes to transfer dozens of detainees from Guantanamo Bay in the next six months as part of a stepped-up effort to reduce the population there, according to a U.S. official. As many as five detainees are expected to be moved from the detention facility in the next few days, with several more transfers anticipated in early 2015, the official said on condition of anonymity. The news comes less than a week after the United States announced it had repatriated four detainees from Guantanamo to Afghanistan, leaving 132 detainees at the U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba. President...

Now where have we previously heard Senator Rand Paul’s cliché-fest that constitutes his rebuttal to Senator Marco Rubio on Cuba sanctions? Well, from The Council on Foreign Relations to the New York Times and from Hillary Clinton to The Congressional Black Caucus—and that’s for starters. And oh, we also heard it repeatedly from every single one of the KGB-trained Cuban spies convicted by U.S. juries recently. “The embargo is Castro’s best friend,” Clinton chanted to an extremely friendly audience at the Council on Foreign Relations back in June while citing and promoting her book Hard Choices. The sanctions give “Castro...

North Korea: No ‘physical reaction’ to new film By Associated Press December 24 at 5:21 PM UNITED NATIONS — North Korea says it likely will have no “physical reaction,” just condemnation, to the release of the comedy film “The Interview,” which depicts the assassination of leader Kim Jong Un. A North Korea diplomat to the United Nations told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country opposes the film’s release online and in over 300 U.S. theaters this week.

ISIS Says It Will Conquer Europe Soon, Undertake Religious Cleansing And Kill Ruthlessly By Kalyan Kumar | December 23, 2014 3:56 PM EST The radical terror group ISIS has claimed that it is only a matter of time before its fighters conquer Europe. The claim was made by the spokesman of the outfit to veteran journalist Juergen Todenhoefer, who undertook a risky visit to the the ISIS controlled areas in Mosul of Northern Iraq. "We will conquer Europe one day. It is not a question of we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it...

The Army has forwarded the results of its investigation of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance to a four-star general who will decide if any disciplinary action is warranted. The general could decide on a number of possible outcomes, ranging from no further action to a possible court martial for the soldier held by the Taliban for five years after he left his post eastern Afghanistan. "After a thorough investigation and a comprehensive legal review, the investigation concerning Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been forwarded to a General Courts Martial Convening Authority, Gen. Mark Milley, commanding general of Forces Command," the Army said...

"What will you tell the President when you see him?" was my daughter Eva's first reaction when I told her I'd been invited to the White House Channukah party (Actually, it was her second reaction. Her first was, "Take me!"). Kids are innocent that way. They don't realize that when you have over a hundred people crowding the leader of the free world, it's not so easy to get in a word edgewise. But I got lucky. It's not what I told the President that mattered, it's what I heard him say when few people were paying attention. After the...

Former President Kennedy would approve of President Obama's decision to roll back trade and travel restrictions on Cuba, the White House argued Wednesday. "I do think that even President Kennedy would acknowledge that after more than 50 years of a policy of isolation [which] didn't bring about the desired result … change was needed," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. President Obama announced earlier in the day that the administration would ease travel restrictions to the country, as well as restrictions on exports to Cuba. The government is also allowing U.S. financial and telecommunications firms to establish more of...

In a speech held at the same time as President Barack Obama’s televised speech announcing a normalization of relations with Cuba, Cuban dictator Raul Castro urged Obama to use “executive action” to bypass Congressional policy on Cuba. USA Today’s Gregory Korte first caught the comments: Raul Castro urges President Obama to use “executive action” to lift congressionally imposed sanctions on Cuba. — Gregory Korte (@gregorykorte) December 17, 2014

Sen. Cruz Responds to the President’s new Cuba Policy WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today released the following statement regarding the President’s announcement to change U.S. policy with Cuba and lift economic embargos. “We rejoice that Alan Gross’ wrongful imprisonment by the brutal Castro regime has finally come to an end, and that he will be able to spend the holidays with his loved ones. But make no mistake, although we are glad Alan is now free, the agreement the Obama Administration has entered into with the Castro regime has done nothing to resolve the underlying problem. Indeed,...

Following the return of Alan Gross to the U.S., Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the “Obama, Clinton, Kerry foreign policy,” saying the Castro brothers are “state sponsors of terrorism” and that President Barack Obama “does not understand the difference between our friends and our enemies.”Cruz, one of three Cuban American members of the upper chamber in Congress, also called the normalization of relations between the two nations “a tragic mistake” made the comments to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Wednesday afternoon. TED CRUZ: “This is yet another manifestation of the failures of the Obama, Clinton, Kerry foreign policy. For six years we followed...

Allahu Akbar. Sydney terrorist Sheik Haron Monis called out Barack Obama in 2008. He warned Obama during his campaign to not hide his religion. Canada Free Press reported: Among those who saw Barack Hussein Obama as an “apostate” for denying his religion as an Islamist, when he first ran as president in 2008, was the man who was to become the terrorist who killed two innocent hostages, injuring four others at the Sydney Lindt Cafe on Sunday. Signing his name as “Sheik Haron” and writing “Dear Brother Barack Obama” in the salutation of his letter, Man Haron Monis warned Obama...

The nation’s foreign policy is “a manifest disaster.” Its approach to cutting a deal with Iran on nuclear development is “catastrophically reckless.” Its policy on assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia is “incoherent.” This White House is home to the “most hostile administration to Israel in modern times.” That’s Sen. Ted Cruz’s scathing assessment of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, a blistering critique that is positioning him as the most blazingly hawkish Republican to potentially run for president in 2016. He also tellingly dubbed it “the Obama-Clinton foreign policy,” a subtle hint that he’d lob much of the same...

Islamic State militants are boasting that they have developed a dirty bomb — a crude nuclear weapon using materials seized from Mosul University, Iraq. [A] letter written by the Iraqi Ambassador to the U.N. to the body’s Secretary-General confirm[ed] that some 88 pounds of uranium that could be adapted for a dirty bomb was seized by militants.

A Cairo judge capped a months long retrial by dismissing the death charges -- reversing the former strongman's convictions in 2012 -- and finding Mubarak not guilty of corruption.