Free Republic

The following euphoria was brought to you by President George W. Bush. Remember the London Daily Mirror headline – "How Can 59,054,087 People Be So Dumb?" The New York Times, as recently as three weeks ago, predicted disaster for the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections: "The coming elections – long touted as the beginning of a new, democratic Iraq – are looking more and more like the beginning of that worst-case scenario. It's time to talk about postponing the elections."

The Democrats are still arguing among themselves about the best course for their party to take in the aftermath of its bone-crunching defeat on Nov. 2. Here and there a voice is raised counseling moderation. But the most popular suggestion is that the Democrats should forget about moderation and go after the Republicans (and President Bush in particular) with no holds barred. In fact, many Democrats are already slugging away as suggested, and it's high time somebody blew the whistle on them. So let me be the first: The Democrats who charge that President Bush "lied us into war" in...

In one of the grandest events in the history of the world, millions of Iraqis risked death on Sunday to vote in a free, democratic election. There were more than 100 attacks on polling stations by the "insurgents" (or "Islamic fascists," as authentic Americans call them). But the Iraqis voted – Shia, Sunnis, women and an estimated 2,000 dead felons in Washington state. Democrats haven't been this depressed since we captured Saddam Hussein.

An agent of Iran's prestigious Jerusalem Force was arrested in Iraq carrying money and planning attacks against U.S. troops, sources said. U.S. Coalition forces arrested members of an underground armed group operating in Iraq's eastern Diyala province Thursday. Among them was a senior member of the Jerusalem Force carrying $150,000 in cash, said the sources.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - America's ongoing military entanglement in Iraq (news - web sites) has become President George Bush (news - web sites)'s Vietnam, US Senator Edward Kennedy, a leading member of the opposition Democratic party, said. The harsh words refer to the US role and ultimate defeat in the 1964-1975 Vietnam war. Iraq is "clearly is George Bush's Vietnam," said Kennedy, speaking on CBS's "Face The Nation" program. Kennedy then blasted Bush's claim in an interview in Sunday's Washington Post that his Iraq policy was endorsed by the US public because of his November 2004 re-election victory. "I think that's...

Paris, Jan. 15 – A photo showing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born mastermind behind the latest spate of bombings in Iraq, standing with senior commanders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was seen by Jordan's King Abdullah II last month, according to an Algerian journalist. "The Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister did not attend the Amman conference of Iraq's neighbors in response to accusations made by Jordan's King Abdullah II", Atwan Tazakrat on Thursday told US-based Radio Farda. "Fifteen days earlier, Jordanian intelligence services gave King Abdullah II documents along with a picture of a number of heads of...

When Saddam Hussein fell from power, the world of prostitution collapsed in Iraq. Escaping war and the rise of Islamic moralism, thousands of Iraqi prostitutes packed their bags and fled to Syria. But now, Syrian prostitutes, accusing the Iraqi women of taking their jobs, are launching a counteroffensive against this "invasion," according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online, weekly, intelligence newsletter published by WND.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Ansar al-Sunnah Army has emerged from its roots as a little known militant group operating in northern Iraq to become the country’s deadliest terror network, capable of carrying out spectacular strikes like last week’s suicide bombing at a U.S. base and virtually eclipsing al-Qaida’s cell in the war-torn nation. Unlike al-Qaida, Ansar al-Sunnah is believed to be made up mainly of Iraqis, and its apparent strategy of targeting only Americans and those viewed as collaborating with them — Iraqi security forces and Kurds — may have increased its support, in contrast to other groups that have...

Citing only alleged European "secret reports," an article in a Saudi government daily accused the U.S. Army of harvesting the organs of Iraqis and selling them. The story in Al-Watan also was published in the Iranian daily Jomhouri-ye Islami and the Syrian daily Teshreen, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.

The escalation of terrorism against religious places of worship, holy sites and believers in Iraq is causing non-Muslim minorities to flee in ever increasing numbers, threatening their survival, says an independent panel in a letter to President Bush. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by Congress to advise the president and secretary of state, said it has urgently requested a meeting with Bush to discuss the "dire" situation.

The U.S. may initiate incursions into Syrian territory to stop Baathist insurgents from crossing the border and attacking U.S. troops in Iraq, a senior administration official said. "I think the sanctions are one thing. But I think the other thing [the Syrians] have got to start worrying about is whether we would take cross-border military action in hot pursuit," the official told the Jerusalem Post.

TEHRAN, IRAN-November 28, 2004 — The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie. It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates who want better relations with the world and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.

Walter Cronkite, the former CBS anchor once dubbed "the most trusted man in America," speculated on CNN's "Larry King Live" that President Bush's re-election campaign is working with Osama bin Laden.

Throughout his campaign, and more recently in the first two presidential debates, Sen. Kerry has continued to argue that President Bush should have gone to war in Iraq only as a last resort – but he refuses to say what that last resort is. How can he credibly criticize anyone for prematurely crossing a line that he will not define for himself? What's more paradoxical is Bush's reticence to exploit this vulnerability. I've interviewed Kerry's top spokesperson Tad Divine, Foreign Relations Adviser Jamie Rubin, Senior Strategist Paul Begala and Democrat National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe and not one of them...

ARIS, Oct. 22 - France's antiterrorist police on Friday identified a young Frenchman killed fighting the United States in Iraq, the first confirmed case of what is believed to be a growing stream of Muslims heading from Europe to fight what they regard as a new holy war. Redouane el-Hakim, 19, the son of Tunisian immigrants, died during an American bombardment of insurgents in Falluja on July 17, according to an intelligence official close to the case. Intelligence officials fear that for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq could become what Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya were for European...

If not getting nuked in your jammies is high on your priority list, then maybe your best bet is to vote for John Kerry. Kerry has just endorsed last October's Brit-French-German-Russian agreement with Iran, whereby they pledged to facilitate "the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," if Iran agreed to sign and abide by an Additional Protocol to their existing Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

An Iraqi sheik claims Allah sent giant spiders to the town of Fallujah to help its residents fend off attacks by U.S. military forces. Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i spoke to Syrian TV on Monday, claiming several Arab television stations videotaped the helpful arachnids.

WASHINGTON – If John Kerry is elected president and doesn't immediately pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, he could be faced with an unusual situation – anti-war protests by a group modeled after the one he led during the Vietnam War. A new organization, Iraq Veterans Against the War, is just that – an organization inspired by Kerry's own Vietnam Veterans Against the War legacy.

Pollster John Zogby has predicted John Kerry will win the presidential election in November. In a column yesterday, the researcher laid out four reasons he sees that point to the defeat of President Bush. "I have made a career of taking bungee jumps in my election calls," Zogby writes. "Sometimes I haven't had a helmet and I have gotten a little scratched. But here is my jump for 2004: John Kerry will win the election." Zogby first notes lackluster poll numbers for Bush. His most recent survey found Kerry leading, 47 to 44 percent in a two-man race. Also, he...

The Democratic Party's presidential front-runner, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has pledged that if elected he will abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for three-and-one-half years of mistakes by the Bush administration. In a sweeping foreign-policy address to the Council on Foreign Relations in December, Kerry called the U.S. war on terror as conceived and led by President Bush "the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history."