Free Republic

Yesterday I cited an article from Reuters which stated that the British government had expressed anger over the Obama administration's decision to release 4 Uighur detainees from Guantanamo bay into the Caribbean island of Bermuda, a British overseas territory. The Reuters piece went on to say that "in a sign of the sensitivity of the issue, the State Department said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the matter with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday. However, Reuters added "when asked if U.S. authorities had consulted the British government, [a State Department] official said: "We did talk to them...

If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. This famous maxim by the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu is familiar to every student of military science and strategy. His counsel is simple: understand your enemy, understand yourself. Nearly eight years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, however, important segments of our military infrastructure dedicated to training and educating the next generation of military leaders have woefully failed to heed Sun Tzu’s advice. Two recent blog posts by Washington Post military correspondent Tom Ricks related to policies and publications by the U.S....

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Countries that act unilaterally on the world stage undermine the authority of the United Nations and weaken the broad consensus needed to confront global problems, Pope Benedict said on Friday. In a major speech to the U.N. General Assembly, the pope also said the international community sometimes had the duty to intervene when a country could not protect its own people from "grave and sustained violations of human rights." The pope, who arrived from Washington on the second leg of a six-day U.S. trip, was only the third pontiff in history to address the General Assembly....

Senator Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday setting a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world, saying the United States should greatly reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism, aides say. In a speech at DePaul University in Chicago, Mr. Obama will add his voice to a plan endorsed earlier this year by a bipartisan group of former government officials from the cold war era who say the United States must begin building a global consensus to reverse a reliance on nuclear weapons that have become “increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.” Mr. Obama, according to...

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The Pentagon notified Congress on Tuesday of a proposed sale to Israel of 100 guided bunker-busting bombs, a move that analysts said could prompt concerns about a unilateral Israel strike against Iran. Israel has requested the sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp. GBU-28s worth as much as $30 million, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a notice required by law for government-to-government military sales. The GBU-28 was developed for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground and would be used by the Israeli Air Force on their U.S.-built F-15 aircraft, the agency said....

Gush Katif and parts of Shomron, Israel, are slated for a unilateral withdrawal by the Israeli government within a few months. Not only are they removing military protection, the government also claims to expel all the Jews living in those areas, at least 8500 souls in Gush Katif (Gaza.) I toured those areas a few days ago, visiting 6 towns in Gush Katif and 2 in Shomron, all condemned by their government. These are built-up, well-established towns, with over 1000 acres of hothouses, many factories, and spacious modern houses (not huts as some imply.) I have assembled a photo essay...

Multilateralism? No, merci National Post Mon 22 Nov 2004 Page: A14 Section: Comment Byline: Lorne Gunter No blood for chocolate! No blood for chocolate! No blood for chocolate! Where are the mass protests in the streets of the world's capitals against France's military intervention in the Ivory Coast? This month, French peacekeepers in the former French colony launched a pre-emptive assault against the Ivorian air force. They also interferred with the internal politics of the troubled nation and sought regime change -- or at least they have been accused of both by President Laurent Gbagbo. They acted without authorization by...

Europeans may have trouble carving out a common foreign policy, but most agree on one thing: Bush must go. With US elections rapidly approaching, countless Europeans are fervently seeking to sway American voters. But can their efforts really make a difference? Even in Europe, there is no escaping it. The United States presidential campaign is everywhere. Every tiny change in the polls wins a spot on the evening news and not a day goes by without coverage of the campaign. Academics regularly bash heads over the latest campaign intrigue and a flood of titles critical of Bush and the Iraq...

The remark by Kerry concerning a supposed "global test" for a preemptive war made me recall George Will's column from last year in which he asserted that the "Bush Doctrine" had failed in Iraq due to the inability to find WMD. Here is Will's quote: "Overshadowing the military achievement is the failure -- so far -- to find, or explain the absence of, weapons of mass destruction that were the necessary and sufficient justification for preemptive war. The doctrine of preemption -- the core of the president's foreign policy -- is in jeopardy." (First published on June 22, 2003) This...

John Kerry has strongly criticized the Bush administration for its "go it alone" - or unilateral - approach to foreign policy. For months, Kerry has claimed America has shouldered too much of the burden in Iraq by itself. He says he would have taken a multi-national - or multilateral - approach, bringing along more allies for the fight and the reconstruction afterwards.....

Let's look at how North Korea scores on the "Global Test" that Kerry mentioned in tonight's presidential debate: ·Kerry has criticized Bush on the campaign and during tonight's debate for not giving the U.N. and multilateral diplomacy a chance in Iraq before committing to military action ·Kerry said during the debate that "nuclear proliferation" is the biggest threat to America and pointed to North Korea as the major malefactor in that threat ·Since it was discovered North Korea was attempting to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons in October 2002, Bush has used a multilateral diplomatic coalition of at least five...

Kerry on Saddam, in Kerry’s own words by Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret. Given Kerry’s latter day allegations that President Bush lied about WMD as a pretext for preemptive removal of Saddam Hussein, the writer thought it is interesting to review his own remarks on the subject, so here goes: “While we should always seek to take significant international actions on a multilateral rather than a unilateral basis whenever that is possible, it in the final analysis we face what we truly believe to be a grave threat to the well-being of our Nation or the entire world and it...

Army Home Page / Press Centre / Press Releases  Serial number 1131  Released on Thursday 22nd January 2004 WELSH ROYAL ENGINEER VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS RETURN FROM THE GULFFACILTY NOTE WELSH ROYAL ENGINEER VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS RETURN FROM THE GULF Volunteer soldiers serving with the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) are scheduled to return home to Wales this weekend. Some 124 soldiers from across the regiment were mobilised in May 2003 in support of OPERATION TELIC duty in Iraq. The volunteers deployed as a composite sub unit under the title of 100 Field Squadron Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia), which is the title of the squadron based...

<p>Below is the text of Howard Dean's letter to President Clinton on the conflict in Bosnia, dated July 19, 1995.</p> <p>After long and careful thought, and after several years of watching the gross atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serbs, I have reluctantly concluded that the efforts of the United Nations and NATO in Bosnia are a complete failure.</p>

Rice Warns of 'Made in America' Solution in Iran Friday, June 27, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com LONDON, June 27 (AFP) - US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has indicated that the United States is ready to act alone against Iran and North Korea if European countries do not cooperate in stopping them from developing nuclear weapons, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday. "If we do not want a 'Made in America' solution, let's find out how to resolve the issues of North Korea and Iran," the paper quoted Rice as saying during a visit to London Thursday. Rice sought to play...

<p>NATO is the ultimate coalition of the willing. An alliance of democracies, it can only exist if its members agree to remain united. That's why the French effort to create an independent European defense organization, with a separate headquarters, needs to be understood as an attempt to undermine the only official institution that binds the West.</p>

<p>Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday ridiculed the notion that America must enlist the support of every ally before defending itself, saying such a policy would have been disastrous in Iraq.</p> <p>"Ultimately, America must be in charge of her own national security," Mr. Cheney told the Heritage Foundation.</p>

FENGOLO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - The first shoots of peace are sprouting in western Ivory Coast. Just three days ago, Fengolo village swarmed with young, menacing rebel fighters. Many were drugged up, with magic charms hanging round their necks, knives and axes in hand and assault rifles slung across bare shoulders. But that was before French and West African troops got the green light to enter the western war zone of Ivory Coast on Friday, rumbling through rebel and government territory in an impressive show of force to secure a cease-fire line. Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Seydou Diarra visited Fengolo...

<p>MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia should revise its military doctrine to counter threats from terrorism, the defense minister said in an interview published Friday, suggesting the military be allowed to strike terror facilities in other countries.</p> <p>The remarks by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov were similar to those made by President Vladimir Putin after Chechen gunmen seized a Moscow theater last year.</p>

War with Iraq -- Going it alone Going it alonePresident Bush has determined to go it alone against Iraq. At this point, we can only hope and pray that he is doing the right thing. By The Capital-Journal editorial board President Bush has declared that diplomacy has come to an end, so war with Iraq is just days, maybe even hours, away. As he promised, Bush has decided that the United States will go it alone, without U.N. approval, which obviously was not going to happen. Only Great Britain and Spain support the U.S. mission.Anyone who has listened to...