Free Republic

Thirty years after President Reagan seized upon an historic opportunity to bring down the Iron Curtain, there are growing indications that President Trump can make similarly historic strides in the conflict between the US and the new Evil of our time: Islamic extremism. In its first five months, President Trump’s presidency has witnessed dramatic shifts from the policies normalized by the Obama administration. Few are as significant or wide-ranging as the changes in American dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The new attitude enjoys rare bipartisan support in Congress, and with good cause. The conciliatory policy of Trump’s predecessor...

The election of Donald Trump last year set the stage for major changes in U.S. foreign policy and particularly American policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was clear on the campaign trail that Trump’s views on Iran could hardly be more different than those of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Almost six months into his first term the administration is now well positioned to lay the foundation for a lasting Middle East legacy by boldly embracing the goal of regime change in Tehran. Whereas the Obama administration took great pride in the Iran nuclear deal it helped to negotiate,...

The drums of war are continuing to beat with UN Ambassador Nikki Haley coming out and basically saying the Trump administration is against Syrian president Assad staying in power. Haley said, “regime change is something that we think is going to happen.” “There’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime,” Haley said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” set to air Sunday. “If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation, it’s going to be hard to see a government...

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that “steps are underway” on an international coalition to pressure Syria’s Bashar Assad from power, as President Trump was being briefed on military options for Syria – though what specific steps the U.S. and its allies might take in response to the latest deadly chemical weapons attack remained unclear. America’s top diplomat addressed the Syria crisis a day after Trump declared in the Rose Garden that the chemical strike would not be tolerated. Tillerson pointedly said Russia should “consider carefully” its support for the Assad regime, while calling for an international effort to...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — They line up near the Oval Office, down the hallway toward the Cabinet Room, trailed by their spouses and young kids in their finest clothes. When it's their turn, the White House staffers enter for a few private moments with President Barack Obama, a photo and a farewell hug from the boss.</p>

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday that he still believes the only real solution for Iran is “regime change.” “The only longterm solution is regime change in Tehran,” said Bolton. “The ayatollahs are the principal threat to international peace and security and the Middle East.” Bolton continued, “Their ouster won’t bring sweetness and light to the region, that’s for sure, but it will eliminate the principal threat.” “I think the people of Iran would long for a new regime. I think we saw that in the summer of 2009 with...

Obama points finger at Britain, France over Libya chaos Published March 11, 2016 FoxNews.com President Barack Obama has strongly criticized the leaders of Great Britain and France for their policy toward Libya after the 2011 overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, saying that he was mistaken to believe the U.S.' European allies would be "more invested in the follow-up" to Qaddafi's fall. Obama made the remarks in an interview with The Atlantic magazine. The criticisms of British Prime Minister David Cameron, in particular, are some of the strongest of a sitting U.K. leader by a sitting president. In the interview, Obama...

The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to forbid the Pentagon from providing military equipment, training, advice or support to Libya's rebels. By a 225-201 margin, lawmakers debating an annual Pentagon spending bill adopted an amendment restricting Washington's ability to help fighters looking to overthrow longtime Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi. The House was expected to vote Friday on approving the underlying bill, but the provision on Libya's rebels could face stiff opposition in Senate, which must approve the legislation to send it to Obama to sign into law. Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma introduced the measure at a time...

Behind the rise of ISIS, the Libyan Civil War, the unrest in Egypt, Yemen and across the region may be a single classified document.That document is Presidential Study Directive 11.You can download Presidential Study Directive 10 on “Preventing Mass Atrocities” from the White House website, but as of yet no one has been able to properly pry number 11 out of Obama Inc.Presidential Study Directive 10, in which Obama asked for non-military options for stopping genocide, proved to be a miserable failure. The Atrocities Prevention Board’s only use was as a fig leaf for a policy that had caused the...

President Obama and his administration continue to support the global Islamist militant group known the Muslim Brotherhood. A White House strategy document regards the group as a moderate alternative to more violent Islamist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The policy of backing the Muslim Brotherhood is outlined in a secret directive called Presidential Study Directive-11, or PSD-11. The directive was produced in 2011 and outlines administration support for political reform in the Middle East and North Africa, according to officials familiar with the classified study. Efforts to force the administration to release the directive or portions of...

Behind the rise of ISIS, the Libyan Civil War, the unrest in Egypt, Yemen and across the region may be a single classified document.That document is Presidential Study Directive 11.You can download Presidential Study Directive 10 on “Preventing Mass Atrocities” from the White House website, but as of yet no one has been able to properly pry number 11 out of Obama Inc.Presidential Study Directive 10, in which Obama asked for non-military options for stopping genocide, proved to be a miserable failure. The Atrocities Prevention Board’s only use was as a fig leaf for a policy that had caused the...

A senior Saudi prince has launched an unprecedented call for change in the country’s leadership, as it faces its biggest challenge in years in the form of war, plummeting oil prices and criticism of its management of Mecca, scene of last week’s hajj tragedy. The prince, one of the grandsons of the state’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, has told the Guardian that there is disquiet among the royal family – and among the wider public – at the leadership of King Salman, who acceded the throne in January.

An odd report from state TV has sparked a new round of speculation Kremlin-controlled TV informed millions of Russians about a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev. Nothing unusual about that, right? Wrong. The meeting between the two leaders of the former Soviet republics isn’t due to take place until Monday. But that didn’t stop the newsreader on the Rossiya 24 channel reading out the following item – all in the past tense. “The Kremlin also reports that Vladimir Putin met with Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev on Monday. They talked about cooperation in investment and...

There’s a profound disgruntlement in the Force over the impending Iran deal, ranging from the Israelis to the Saudis, and from the French to the Gulfies. It isn’t just words, apparently — there are rumors suggesting that some of the disgruntled Arabs are arranging to get their own nukes, just as Netanyahu foresaw (or perhaps even knew), and as Kissinger warned (and perhaps knew).The powers-that-be have bought into the false option of either making a deal or going to a war footing. It was once known as the Sarkozy Option: Iran with the bomb, or bomb Iran.It need not...

In recent weeks, I have heard former Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier on Fox News twice asserting, quite offhandedly, that President George W. Bush “lied us into war in Iraq.” I found this shocking. I took a leave of absence from the bench in 2004-05 to serve as co-chairman of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction—a bipartisan body, sometimes referred to as the Robb-Silberman Commission. It was directed in 2004 to evaluate the intelligence community’s determination that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD—I am, therefore, keenly aware of both the intelligence provided to...

The rope used to execute ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be yours for the right price. Ex-Prime Minister Mowaffak Al-Rubaie has put the item up for sale more than eight years after he witnessed Saddam hanged in 2006. An unidentified senior Iraqi political official told the Middle East news site Al-Araby al-Jadeed this week that several individuals from Israel, Iran and Kuwait are vying to purchase the rope — with one making a $7 million bid.

For years, leaders in both political parties have allowed Qatar and Qatari entities to work against American national interests. Now “regime change” is necessary there, if the civilized world is to destroy radical, Islamist, jihadists and live in peace. The Obama administration, already proven wrong on so many key foreign policy matters, is certainly incorrect to count Qatar as a friend of the United States and our longstanding allies in October 2014. Qatar opened a spigot through which massive sums of money flow to politically connected cronies inside our country, and entities located there continue to work against American values...

TEL AVIV – In recent weeks, representatives for the Obama administration have held meetings with a senior politician here in which the U.S. delegates brought up the possibility of replacing Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, according to an informed Jerusalem diplomatic source. The meetings were held with Israel’s popular finance minister, Yair Lapid, founder and leader of the Yesh Atid Party, which became the second-largest party in the Knesset winning 19 seats in the last election. The diplomatic source said the Obama administration identified Lapid as a moderate who could be helpful in pushing the Israeli government into accepting the...

The U.S. would oust the communist regime in North Korea if it uses its nuclear weapons or launches an all-out invasion on South Korea and the 28,500 American troops stationed there, national security sources say. The Obama administration has not articulated such a far-reaching retaliation, even as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatens to attack both the South Korean and the U.S. mainland. But national security sources say it is a common assumption within the Pentagon and U.S. Pacific Command that a full-force attack by Pyongyang would put in place a contingency plan of massive retaliation against the North aimed...

Gadhafi Loyalists Still Battling New Western-backed Rulers in Libya Written by Alex Newman A year after the execution of former Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi at the hands of Western-backed rebels, forces opposed to the new Tripoli-based regime ruling parts of Libya are still fighting on. According to news reports, assorted Libyan militias supposedly aligned with the embattled new government have been shelling the Gadhafi-loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid all weekend in a bid to quash the late dictator’s remaining die-hard supporters. Officials with the new government said the fighting reflected the fact that not all of Libya had been “liberated”...