Free Republic

Top U.S. General Hints at Military Action Against North Korea in a ‘Few More Months’ The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. might use force against North Korea as early as this fall. Did you hear that, Pyongyang? How about you, Beijing? GORDON G. CHANG 07.25.17 1:00 AM ET Several media outlets have reported that Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said over the weekend that war with North Korea was not “unimaginable.” What has gone unreported is that he also suggested the administration is giving diplomacy only “a few more months.”

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The 2nd Amendment is one of the key methods of ensuring a free society stays free. The basis was to prevent tyrannical governance, but the argument of “the collective rights theory” has been the blade that has undone the stitching to allow far more government intervention in the ownership of firearms and has created back doors to regulation. One of the more recent studies into Gun Ownership and Crime Stats, carried out by...

Period has become increasingly challenging at the box office, not to mention in recent times marquees have been inundated with World War II fare, particularly films starring Brad Pitt. But when director Christopher Nolan embraces the historical subject, it’s a different story, and Warner Bros is celebrating a win for its older-male-skewing Dunkirk this weekend with $50.5 million — a figure that not only beat tracking, but the total $40M stateside ticket sales of Pitt’s November WWII bomb Allied.

Military action against North Korea 'not unimaginable': Dunford The top US military officer has raised the possibility of a military confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear program, which he described as “our No. 1 challenge.” "As I've told my counterparts, both friend and foe, it is not unimaginable to have military options to respond to North Korean nuclear capability,” Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a security conference on Saturday. Dunford stressed the importance of continued economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang, but dismissed the notion that a military option should not...

Never has so much ignorance been rendered on such a great feat by so few. Such is the historical record of reviewers of the new movie, "Dunkirk." First, a brief historical primer. Dunkirk was the site of the British Army's evacuation from northern France in May-June 1940. The evacuation was made necessary after the British Army in France, deployed as the British Expeditionary Force, was encircled by a rapidly advancing German army. Thanks to the immense courage of rearguard forces, RAF pilots, and British civilians (who lent their boats to the effort), 200,000 British soldiers and 140,000 French, Belgian and...

Intelligence Report (YouTube) Syrian War Report – July 19, 2017: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Clashes With Ahrar al-Sham In Idlib Province https://youtu.be/O3-RilWhnGE

Sikkim standoff at Doklam: China warns India, says PLA troops will not wait patiently Sikkim standoff at Doklam: In a stern message directed towards India, China has said that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been waiting patiently at Doklam but will not do so for an indefinite period. By: FE Online | New Delhi | Updated: July 18, 2017 8:00 AM Sikkim standoff at Doklam: In a stern message directed towards India, China has said that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been waiting patiently at Doklam but will not do so for an indefinite period, according to Indian Express report....

He Fights! My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer: We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain? We tried propriety...

Christopher Nolan's new film follows soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, Canada and France as they're surrounded by the German army and evacuated during the eponymous World War II battle. Dunkirk is an impressionist masterpiece. These are not the first words you expect to see applied to a giant-budgeted summer entertainment made by one of the industry's most dependably commercial big-name directors. But this is a war film like few others, one that may employ a large and expensive canvas but that conveys the whole through isolated, brilliantly realized, often private moments more than via sheer spectacle, although that is...

Ronald L. Ridgeway was “killed” in Vietnam on Feb. 25, 1968. The 18-year-old Marine Corps private first class fell with a bullet to the shoulder during a savage firefight with the enemy outside Khe Sanh. Dozens of Marines, from what came to be called “the ghost patrol,” perished there. At first, Ridgeway was listed as missing in action. Back home in Texas, his old school, Sam Houston High, made an announcement over the intercom. But his mother, Mildred, had a letter from his commanding officer saying there was little hope. And that August, she received a “deeply regret” telegram from...

Earlier on Saturday, a military spokesman said the insurgents' defense lines were collapsing, state television reported. "We are seeing now the last meters (yards) and then final victory will be announced," a presenter said, citing correspondents embedded with security forces fighting in Islamic State's redoubt in the Old City by the Tigris. "It's a matter of hours," she added.

DNA Edit: China's warmongery Not an ambassador of peace The dogs of war are growling and if the India-China-Bhutan standoff in the Doklam plateau escalates, they would soon be upon us. However, even before things come to such a pass, the Chinese media, it seems, is egging on its government to flex its military muscles against India and teach New Delhi "a bitter lesson". It isn't only the Chinese media that is so eagerly, and so brusquely, baiting war. Even the Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui has jumped into the fray saying that there is no possibility of a...

Defense Secretary James Mattis on Thursday said he does not believe North Korea’s new ballistic missile capability brings the United States "closer to war" with the country, but he asserted that the U.S. military "remains ready" for any conflict. "I do not believe this capability in itself brings us closer to war because the president's been very clear, the secretary of State's been very clear, that we are leading with diplomatic and economic efforts," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

Pyongyang claims a further breakthrough toward a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach American cities SEOUL—The U.S. warned North Korea that it is ready to fight if provoked, as Pyongyang claimed another weapons-development breakthrough following its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile a day earlier. The regime, having demonstrated its capacity to reach the U.S. with a missile, on Wednesday touted another achievement of the test launch: It claimed that its missile warhead—the forward section, which carries the explosive—can withstand the extreme heat and pressure of re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. If true—the claim couldn’t be independently verified—that would clear another hurdle...

A bipartisan delegation of five senators visiting U.S. troops in Afghanistan for the Independence Day holiday issued a stark warning about the Trump administration's lack of strategy for a military conflict that has dragged on for more than a decade. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted with concern that Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has yet to visit the country, and the administration has not yet nominated an ambassador in Kabul. "It's more than just dropping bombs that will win in Afghanistan," Graham said. "Secretary Tillerson needs to come to Afghanistan quickly." [Snip] "Nobody on the ground here believes there...

RAQA, SYRIA (AFP) – An ivory-coloured rosary swings from the rearview mirror of Abboud Seryan’s pickup truck as he speeds through Syria’s Raqa, inspecting the positions of fellow Christian fighters taking on the Islamic State group. Lively music blasts through the car speakers while the thin 23-year-old, wearing a military-style cap and a revolver tucked into his waist, waves to comrades in the western district of Al-Romaniya. IS was ousted from the neighbourhood earlier this month as part of the US-backed offensive to defeat the jihadists in their northern Syrian bastion. The ground assault is being carried out by the...

If President Donald Trump really wants to win his war with the biased and unruly cabal of White House television reporters, he'd appoint James Mattis as his temporary communications czar. Who better than Mattis, the legendary U.S. Marine Corps general, to whip the preening and self-important television correspondents into shape? Not for nothing did his troops affectionally call him "Mad Dog

June 28 is the anniversary of two days that might be said to mark the beginning and end of the First World War. It's the centennial of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife - heirs to the Austrian throne - by Serbian radical Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, the proximate cause of the beginning of the war. On the same date in 1919, five years later, the peace treaty that ended the war was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. In the interim, ten million died, twice that number were wounded, and...

The History Channel is running a four-part series tracing the history (duh!) of the so-called War on Drugs. Since I seldom watch TV any more, I learned about this after the third episode had already aired. Rats! However, as luck would have it those of us who missed out didn't really miss anything. We can watch at our own pace, a few minutes at a time if that's all we can digest in one sitting (or or are otherwise distracted by barking dogs, phone calls, kids, meals). The site will remember where you left off so you can resume at...

With numerous distractions unfolding on the newly released reality TV show that is “Keeping Up with the Trump Administration,” it may surprise readers to learn that the U.S. is using the terror group ISIS as a pawn in its depraved foreign policy. Video footage obtained by Al-Masdar appears to show convoys of ISIS fighters fleeing the Syrian city of Raqqa untouched by the U.S. military, which is currently bombing that exact location. As Al-Masdar notes, despite having Kurdish and American drones hovering around the city of Raqqa, U.S. bombs are nowhere to be seen as hundreds of fighters pass safely....