Free Republic

It’s an Obama world.The US Air Force kicked Christian Gideon’s volunteers off base in March. The Bibles were too offensive and violated the separation of church and state rule.But US military personnel are expected to adhere Islamic practices during Ramadan.Stars and Stripes reported: U.S. personnel accustomed to drinking their coffee on the drive to work will have to put that habit on hold for about a month. It’s one of a few lifestyle changes Americans will have to make during the holy month of Ramadan.Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Officials expect Ramadan to begin at sunrise...

The American military is facing a serious personnel issue: More than two-thirds of today's youth are too uneducated, have behavior issues, and are not physically fit enough for service. "We're trying to make decision makers see this is a national-security matter — and they need to prioritize it," retired Maj. Gen. Allen Youngman told The Wall Street Journal.

* In the United States today, the names Apache, Comanche, Chinook, Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa apply not only to Indian tribes but also to military helicopters. Add in the Black Hawk, named for a leader of the Sauk tribe. Then there is the Tomahawk, a low-altitude missile, and a drone named for an Indian chief, Gray Eagle. Operation Geronimo was the end of Osama bin Laden. Why do we name our battles and weapons after people we have vanquished? For the same reason the Washington team is the Redskins and my hometown Red Sox go to Cleveland to play the...

President Barack Obama has tapped the vice chief of the Army to take over the U.S. command in Afghanistan later this year as America pulls out its combat troops and leaves a force of about 10,000 to train and advise the Afghan military. …

The Obama administration has quietly repatriated a dozen detainees from a small U.S. military prison in Afghanistan, moving a modest step closer toward winding down the United States' controversial post-9/11 detainee system. President Barack Obama, in a letter to Congress released on Thursday, informed U.S. lawmakers that about 38 non-Afghan prisoners remained at the Parwan detention center outside of Kabul, down from around 50 a few months ago. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a Frenchman, a Kuwaiti and 10 Pakistani prisoners were sent back to their respective home countries at the end of May....

10) In six short years as president, Obama has taken the Democratic Party from the One to done. While it’s way too early to write off the party even for 2014, the wounds created by supporting this colossal bozo will be even longer to heal than the wounds inflicted by Jimmy Carter. Obama said way more then he knows when he admitted that the problem is he’s president not emperor. 9) Remember when the Fawning News Media said that comedians would have a tough time making fun of Obama because he was so serious, so perfect, so black? Well the...

At a ceremony commemorating some of the bravest Americans of World War II, President Barack Obama reminded the "greatest generation" how the U.S. military has changed under his command, by slipping in references to immigrants and women. "Rock, I want you to know that Staff Sgt. Melvin Sabillo Martin, who is here today, is following in your footsteps. He just had to become an American first. Because Melvin was born in Honduras, moved to the United States, joined the Army. After tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne. And Sunday, he'll parachute into Normandy. "Wilson,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan has been freed by the Taliban

Last January 2013, then Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the feasibility of opening all military jobs to women by 2016. This would include more than 200,000 jobs that make up the core of the ground-level combat force in the Army and the Marine Corps. Opponents of women in combat argue, rightly in my opinion, that the military's physical standards must not be compromised to expand access because our military's fighting effectiveness is at stake. Hauling 50 pounds of equipment while walking 20 miles is a standard that must not be demoted as it...

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin vowed Monday to keep fighting to give green cards to some illegal immigrants who serve in the U.S. military, according to a report. “If you are willing to sign up in our military and risk your life for America, you should be given that opportunity,” Mr. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, proclaimed at a Senate Appropriation Committee field hearing in Chicago. Senate Democrats are debating whether to add the measure, known as the ENLIST Act, to the annual defense authorization act. The ENLIST Act would enable young illegal immigrants who entered the United States before...

“Actions speak louder than words,” people used to say. But that’s so 20th century. The modern American ethos seems to value how you feel far more than what you do. Last month, almost 300 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Its leader insists they’ll be sold into slavery; some may have been already. Western leaders have left no doubt they feel bad about all this. Michelle Obama’s pouty-faced photo on Twitter went viral. She’s holding a hand-lettered sign: “#BringBackOurGirls.” British Prime Minister David Cameron also held such a sign on the BBC. Yet the Western...

In an article published in the London Review of Books, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Seymour Hersh (of My Lai and, more recently, Abu Ghraib fame), explains recent two foreign policy mysteries to American readers. The piece, The Red Line and the Rat Line is based on interviews with intelligence sources and consultants, and it connects the dots between between these two mysteries, and explains how they are related. What emerges is a clear picture of American cooperation, at the highest levels, with Turkey and Qatar, the foremost sponsors of the Arab Spring (see links). For example, NATO, as of December,...

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just completed a series of landmark reports that chronicle an update to the current state of consensus science on climate change. Its conclusion: On our current path, climate change could pose an irreversible, existential risk to civilization as we know it, but we can still fix it if we decide to work together. But in addition to the call for cooperation, the reports also shared an alarming new trend: Climate change is already destabilizing nations and leading to wars. That finding was highlighted in last week's premiere of Showtime's climate change docu-drama...

Poland and the United States will announce next week the deployment of U.S. ground forces to Poland as part of an expansion of NATO presence in Central and Eastern Europe in response to events in Ukraine. That was the word from Poland’s defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, who visited The Post Friday after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon on Thursday. Siemoniak said the decision has been made on a political level and that military planners are working out details. There will also be intensified cooperation in air defense, special forces, cyberdefense and other areas. Poland will play...

Mao Zedong said of the United States, “In appearance it is very powerful, but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of; it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe that is nothing but a paper tiger.” Osama bin Laden said, “We have religion, we have Islam. The American soldier may have the best weapons in the world, but on the inside, he is spiritually empty – a paper tiger.” Both were wrong. Mao found out by being held in check, and bin Laden...

Robert Farley, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, wants to ground the U.S. Air Force, for good. In his book, Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the US Air Force, Farley argues the United States does not need an independent Air Force in order to effectively wield military air power. Farley, an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, came to his conclusion after studying the conflict between the Army and the Air Force over which military branch was primarily responsible for winning the first Gulf War. “I slowly became more aware that these...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In his final address to Afghanistan's parliament Saturday, President Hamid Karzai told the United States its soldiers can leave

Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, high ranking military officers have been removed from their positions at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented. Things have gotten so bad that a number of retired generals are publicly speaking out about the “purge” of the U.S. military that they believe is taking place. As you will see below, dozens of highly decorated military leaders have been dismissed from their positions over the past few years. So why is this happening? When I was growing up, my father was an officer in the U.S. Navy. And what is going on...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force seized on an advocacy group's report on transgender military service Thursday to call on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order allowing transgender men and women to serve in the military. “We commend the commission for stating independently what we all know: there is no compelling medical reason to exclude trans people from serving their country, and transitions would place almost no burden on the military,” Rea Carey, executive director of the task force, said in a press release . “The President should sign an executive order to lift the...