Free Republic

Russia has quietly become Iran’s most consequential external partner. Public reporting shows Moscow feeding Tehran real time satellite imagery of U.S. and Israeli positions — a simple but powerful boost to Iranian targeting and battle damage assessment. Russia has also helped upgrade Iran’s Shahed drones with better navigation and communications systems. These aren’t glamorous contributions, but they matter: they force the United States to burn multimillion dollar interceptors on cheap, disposable threats. None of this changes the balance of power. But it absolutely changes the tempo of the war. China’s support looks different — quieter, but just as important. Beijing...

A month into the partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — thanks in no small part to separating DHS funding from the rest of the government combined with an unwillingness to address Senate filibuster rules — there have been two Islamist terror attacks on U.S. soil in Austin, Texas and New York City as the war in Iran rages on. Founded in 2002 in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by al Qaeda, who boarded jets to fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security’s purposes...