Free Republic

Sweden is preparing to issue a public information manual on what to do in the event of war, as debate in the country grows over how to deal with the threat from Russia. The brochure, due to be sent to 4.7m households, will inform the public how they can take part in “total defence” during a war and secure water, food and heating. The booklet with the working title If Crisis or War Comes will also give guidance on dealing with threats from cyber attacks, terrorism and climate change, the FT reported. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military support for...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas threatened war if US President Donald Trump does not allocate Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian State. In a Cairo speech, Abbas said, "Jerusalem is the key to peace if it is our capital, and if it is not - it is the key to war. Trump will need to chose." According to Abbas, Trump provoked millions of Muslims by choosing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian who will give up even one millimeter of Jerusalem," he claimed. Last week, Abbas told the Palestine Liberation...

Like Hannibal, I wanted to rank powerful leaders in the history of warfare. Unlike Hannibal, I sought to use data to determine a general’s abilities, rather than specific accounts of generals’ achievements. The result is a system for ranking every prominent commander in military history.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday claimed that the tone of comments adopted by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia towards Iran was virtually “a path to war”, Reuters reports. “The official line pursued by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are our allies in many ways, is almost one that would lead us to war,” Macron was quoted as having told reporters. The line being taken was “a deliberate strategy for some,” he said, while adding that France wanted to maintain some balance. “Otherwise, we end up surreptitiously rebuilding an ‘axis of evil’,” he said, referring...

South Korea's defense authorities said Thursday there has been no indication of an imminent missile test by North Korea, responding to U.S. news reports that the secretive nation appears to be preparing to fire another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). "There is no activity that would lead to an assessment that a missile provocation by North Korea is imminent," Army Col. Roh Jae-cheon, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press briefing. He pointed out, however, that it's possible for the North to press ahead with a missile provocation anytime, adding South Korea and the United States are...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gave a full-throated defense Friday of U.S. efforts to prevent civilian casualties in the conflict in Yemen, making the case that without American involvement, there would be more. Mattis, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, said that “it’s a tragedy every time” a civilian dies, but that the United States is held to a high standard when it comes to preventing civilian fatalities. “We are being held to a standard – ‘we’ being us and anyone associated with us – that has never been achieved before in warfare,” he said. The comments came after two separate...

On a frosty, starlit night, a miracle took place. In 1914, a melody drifted over the darkness of No Man’s Land. First “O, Holy Night,” then “God Save the King.” Peeking over their trenches for what must have been the first time in weeks, British soldiers were surprised to see Christmas trees lit with candles on the parapets of the enemy’s trenches. Then a shout: “You no shoot, we no shoot!” The Christmas Truce was a brief, spontaneous cease-fire that spread up and down the western front of World War I. It’s also a symbol of the peace on Earth...

With most of the Western hemisphere on holiday, another crisis appears to be developing on the India–Pakistan border known as the Line of Control (LoC). The incident started on Saturday, where at least four Indian soldiers were killed, in an exchange of fire with the Pakistani Army on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, ABC News reported. The two sides reportedly exchanged heavy fire in the Keri sector of the Rajouri district, about 222 km southwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The skirmish started when Pakistani troops used automatic weapons,...

“The Battle of Chosin INSURMOUNTABLE ODDS. UNFORGIVING CONDITIONS. UNYIELDING COURAGE. Film Description On Thanksgiving Day 1950, American-led United Nations troops were on the march in North Korea. U.S. Marine and Air Force pilots distributed holiday meals, even to those on the front lines. Hopes were high that everyone would be home by Christmas. But soon after that peaceful celebration, American military leaders, including General Douglas MacArthur, were caught off guard by the entrance of the People's Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong, into the five-month-old Korean War. Twelve thousand men of the First Marine Division, along with a few...

America is drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons programme, The Telegraph understands. The White House has “dramatically” stepped up preparation for a military solution in recent months amid fears diplomacy is not working, well-placed sources said. One option is destroying a launch site before it is used by the regime for a new missile test. Stockpiles of weapons could also be targeted. The hope is that military force would show Kim Jong-un that America is “serious” about stopping further nuclear development and trigger negotiations. Three sources - two former...

As tensions rise to historic heights on the Korean Peninsula, both the US and China have begun taking unprecedented steps to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Across North Korea's border in China's Jilin province, state-run media ran a full-page instructional package on how to survive a nuclear blast. The page doesn't mention North Korea, but it doesn't need to. Also new in Jilin, are five new refugee camps built "because the situation on the China-North Korea border has intensified lately," a leaked document seen by the New York Times read. The camps can potentially accommodate thousands of North Koreans pouring...

‘North Korea is a time bomb’: government advisers urge China to prepare for war The risk of conflict on the Korean peninsula is the highest its been in decades and Beijing must mobilise resources for fallout, observers say PUBLISHED : Saturday, 16 December, 2017, 10:03pm UPDATED : Saturday, 16 December, 2017, 11:26pm China must be ready for a war on the Korean peninsula, with the risk of conflict higher than ever before, Chinese government advisers and a retired senior military officer warned on Saturday. Beijing, once seen as Pyongyang’s key ally with sway over its neighbour, was losing control of...

It's not just the United States that could soon see itself engaged in a deadly conflict with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. China is also at risk of an imminent war with North Korea, warned some of China's most prestigious national security experts at a conference in Beijing this week. “Conditions on the peninsula now make for the biggest risk of a war in decades,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing and an adviser to the State Council of China on diplomacy issues since February 2011, during the...

Although I strongly recommend that you watch from the beginning, the new and most momentous events are described from about the 9-minute mark on. Putin shows that he owns Syria, while taking Russian troops out and talking peace to get ready for his reelection in March. Rockets are being fired from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians ally themselves with Turkey, and there will soon be a break in Israeli/Turkish relations. Erdogan makes a shocking statement about Israel, quoting the Hadith. Current events the way you hear them nowhere else. God bless Amir and all those who follow his teachings.

Long forgotten flags captured by U.S. forces during an obscure 19th-century military action in Korea were uncovered during restoration work at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis last week. The well-preserved flags were rediscovered in the academy’s Mahan Hall when British ensigns seized as trophies during the War of 1812 were removed from their display cases.

Pentagon to boost U.S. weapons under nuclear posture review Russia is aggressively building up its nuclear forces and is expected to deploy a total force of 8,000 warheads by 2026 along with modernizing deep underground bunkers, according to Pentagon officials. The 8,000 warheads will include both large strategic warheads and thousands of new low-yield and very low-yield warheads to circumvent arms treaty limits and support Moscow's new doctrine of using nuclear arms early in any conflict. In addition to expanding its warheads, Russia also is fortifying underground facilities for command and control during a nuclear conflict. One official said the...

Well informed sources have said the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp Brigadier General Haj Qassem Soleimani sent a verbal letter, via Russia, to the head of the US forces commander in Syria, advising him to pull out all US forces to the last soldier “or the doors of hell will open up”. “My message to the US military command: when the battle against ISIS (the Islamic State group) will end, no American soldier will be tolerated in Syria. I advise you to leave by your own will or you will be forced to it”, said Soleimani to a...

BAGHDAD -- Iraq said Saturday that its war on the Islamic State group is over after more than three years of combat operations drove the extremists from all of the territory they once held.

Unless I'm missing something Google appears to be ignoring the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. At least the Bing search engine by Microsoft does.

The true details of Israel's recent strikes on Iranian military in Syria, including the important news that Iran will be moving its weapons to inside Damascus itself, in possibly a forerunner to Isaiah 17.More on moving the embassy, which Amir says will not happen.