Free Republic

On this episode of "YOUR WELCOME" Michael Malice is joined by author and historian Arthur Herman. Arthur has written a number of books including The Idea of Decline in Western History, How the Scots Invented the Modern World about the Scottish enlightenment and Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Listen as he talks to Michael about Plato and Aristotle, Douglas MacArthur, Joe McCarthy and his forthcoming book about the Vikings...

In this light—that is, in light of what was actually known at the time about Saddam Hussein’s actions and intentions, and in light of what was added to our knowledge through his post-capture interrogations by the FBI—the decision to go to war takes on a very different character. The story that emerges is of a choice not only carefully weighed and deliberately arrived at but, in the circumstances, the one moral choice that any American President could make. Had, moreover, Bush failed to act when he did, the consequences could have been truly disastrous. The next American President would surely...

Despite the total failure of leftist policies in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Germany, formerly communist Poland and other eastern European countries, despite the well-publicized failures of national health care in Canada and Great Britain, despite the catastrophes caused by leftist environmental policies here and around the world, the left wing of the Democratic Party, not only will not own up to these failures, but intends to impose the well-documented policy fiascos of the Carter Administration on us all again. It is no wonder, then, that the coming near-total success of the Bush Doctrine in fighting the jihadists on their...

IT'S been a tough month for the British Navy. On March 7, it learned that Tony Blair's Labor government was going ahead with drastic cuts in its budget and number of ships. By this time next year, the once-vaunted Royal Navy will be about the size of the Belgian Navy, while its officers face a five-year moratorium on all promotions. If that wasn't demoralizing enough, last Friday the Iranian Navy seized a patrol boat containing 15 British sailors and Marines, claiming they'd crossed into Iranian waters. They're now hostages and may well go on trial as spies. The latest report...

It is best if an enemy nation comes and surrenders of its own accord. —Du You (735-812) To the student of counterinsurgency warfare, the war in Iraq has reached a critical but dismally familiar stage.On the one hand, events in that country have taken a more hopeful direction in recent months. Operations in the city of Najaf in January presaged a more effective burden-sharing between American and Iraqi troops than in the past. The opening moves of the so-called “surge” in Baghdad, involving increased American patrols and the steady addition of more than 21,000 ground troops, have begun to sweep...

THE American carrier the USS John Stennis and its strike group are headed to the Persian Gulf to join another carrier group in a show of force meant to make Iran rethink its nuclear program. It may be a prelude to war. The conventional wisdom is that there are "no good options" in dealing with Iran. Most commentators see one of two scenarios, both nightmares: a large, bloody and expensive ground invasion and occupation that would cause oil to spike through the roof or a monthslong aerial bombardment of Iran's estimated 1,500 nuclear-related targets that would trigger a worldwide terrorist...

The Hidden Truth About Joseph McCarthy Daniel J. Flynn     For generations of American students, the name Joe McCarthy and not Joe Stalin has been synonymous with evil. A practitioner of “black arts,” a “demon,” “ogreish,” and a “seditionist” are a few of the descriptions of him handed down to us from his first major biographer. The passage of time hasn’t tempered these hysterical reactions.    The late senator, the story goes, created a climate of fear in the early 1950s by conducting a witchhunt that called liberals “Communists” and Communists “spies.” We now know better. The witches were real. Today,...