Free Republic

"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?" tweeted President Donald Trump on Easter Sunday. Earlier, after discovering "great chemistry" with Chinese President Xi Jinping over "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake" at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had confided, "I explained ... that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!" "America First" thus takes a back seat to big-power diplomacy with Beijing. One wonders: How much will Xi end up bilking us for his squeezing of Kim Jong...

After Trump bombed a Syrian airbase in retaliation to a chemical weapons attack the democrats and mainstream media have been singing Trump’s praises. Tucker Carlson had democrat strategist Al Mottur on his show to explore why the democrats are now supportive of war. “When did the democrat party become the war party,” Carlson asked. “Of course we’re not happy we are moving toward war. My point is that I’m happy that this administration is taking Russia seriously and Secretary Tillerson sent the right signals today in his meeting with the foreign minister,” democrat strategist Mottur replied… Carlson continued, “The Prime...

Monday on Laura Ingraham’s nationally syndicated radio show, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan discussed the possibility of the United States escalating its involvement in the Syrian civil war days after President Donald Trump launched a military strike on a Syrian airbase in responding to the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Buchanan noted the biggest cheerleaders of Trump’s action were Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), which he deemed to be “the war party.” However, argued that they would not “get the war they want” from Trump. “It’s McCain and Graham and Marco Rubio —...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asserted Thursday night that President Trump needs congressional authorization for military action in Syria after Trump ordered an airstrike in the country following a deadly chemical attack earlier this week. "While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked," Paul said in a statement shortly after reports that the U.S. had launched more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles against an airfield in Syria. "The President needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate," Paul said....

Strikes represent first time a U.S. military operation deliberately targeted regime of President Bashar al-Assad WASHINGTON—The U.S. military launched nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles against a Syrian air base Friday, responding to mounting calls for a display of force in the wake of ....

... The entire event looks like an horrific operation by anti-Assad forces trying to create assistance for their regime change efforts by killing their own people. Yes, they are that desperate; and yes, there are vested interests in the U.S., including the CIA, who would support such an objective. ...

The nation's top military official in the Middle East on Wednesday said Iran is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. today and has increased its "destabilizing role" in the region. "I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone," Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony Wednesday. "And it's an area between normal competition between states — and it's just short of open conflict." The general said Iran is exploiting this area in a variety of different ways, through things such as "lethal...

President Trump on Sunday accused John McCain and Lindsey Graham - two Republican senators he often clashes with — of "always looking to start World War III." "The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong - they are sadly weak on immigration," Trump tweeted. "The two senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III." On Sunday, McCain and Graham, in a joint statement, condemned Trump's recent executive action restricting immigration and refugees from certain Middle Eastern countries. "Ultimately, we fear this...

When word leaked that Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, a holder of the Order of Friendship award in Putin’s Russia, was Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state, John McCain had this thoughtful response: “Vladimir Putin is a thug, a bully, and a murderer and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying.” Yet, Putin is something else, the leader of the largest nation on earth, a great power with enough nuclear weapons to wipe the United States off the face of the earth. And we have to deal with him. McCain was echoed by the senior Democrat on...

Are Americans today war-weary? Sure. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been frustrating and tiring. Are Americans today unusually war-weary? No. They were wearier after the much larger and even more frustrating conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. And even though the two world wars of the last century had more satisfactory outcomes, their magnitude was such that they couldnÂ’t help but induce a significant sense of war-weariness. And history shows that they did. So American war-weariness isnÂ’t new. Using it as an excuse to avoid maintaining our defenses or shouldering our responsibilities isnÂ’t new, either. But that doesnÂ’t make it...

'Free to lose' isn't good philosophy for the right wing November 19, 2006 BY MARK STEYN Sun-Times Columnist If Milton Friedman had to die, then a week after the defeat of a Republican Congress that had apparently forgotten every lesson Friedman taught in Free To Choose is eerily apt timing. As it happens, had ill health not intervened, Professor Friedman would have been disembarking round about now from a National Review post-election cruise with yours truly and various other pundits and commentators. Instead, we were obliged to sail without him, and in the days that followed I found myself wondering...

Churchill, Hitler, and Newt by Patrick J. Buchanan Posted Feb 19, 2006 You can always tell when the War Party wants a new war. They will invariably trot out the Argumentum ad Hitlerum. Before the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam had become "the Hitler of Arabia," though he had only conquered a sandbox half the size of Denmark. Milosevic then became the "Hitler of the Balkans," though he had lost Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia, was struggling to hold Bosnia and Kosovo, and had defeated no one. Comes now the new Hitler. "This is 1935, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as close to...

Triumph! December 16, 2003 So Saddam Hussein, who hasn’t broken any American laws, will stand trial under the supervision of President Bush, who has pretty much shelved the U.S. Constitution. Saddam — we’re all on first-name terms with him — doesn’t deserve a lot of pity. True, it’s hard not to be touched at the thought of an old man suddenly going from a diet of lobster and caviar to baloney sandwiches every day; but he’s probably in no position to gripe about prison conditions. Anyway, he’ll always have Paris, so to speak. “Good riddance; the world is better off...

Excerpt: many Americans take pleasure in "kicking ass," and they do not much care whose ass is being kicked or why. So long as Americans are dishing out death and destruction to a plausible foreign enemy, the red-white-and-blue jingos are happy. Visit a barbershop, stand in line at the post office or have a drink at your neighborhood tavern and listen to the conversations going on around you. The sheer bellicosity of many ordinary people is as undeniable as it is shocking... -------------------------------------- further excerpts: ...In view of the evident futility, and worse, of nearly every war the United States...

After Baghdad Where Do We Go? Patrick J. Buchanan March 3 2003 Prophecy is difficult, especially with respect to the future, said Mark Twain. And after the president's speech to the annual dinner here of the American Enterprise Institute – Politburo of the War Party – the question remains unanswered: What course does the United States intend to pursue, after U.S. tanks have rolled into Baghdad? As for war itself, that decision has been made. The United States intends to invade and occupy a nation that has not attacked us, to reshape its society, rebuild its government, and redirect its...