Free Republic

The British Museum tries to counter an ugly truth long captured in Western art. ... Objectively speaking, the “Slave Market” painting in question portrays a reality that has played out countless times over the centuries: African and Middle Eastern Muslims have long targeted European women—so much so as to have enslaved millions of them over the centuries. The Muslim demand for, in the words of one historian, “white-complexioned blondes, with straight hair and blue eyes,” traces back to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, who enticed his followers to wage jihad against neighboring Byzantium by citing its blonde (“yellow”) women awaiting...

Thomas Jefferson, Patron Saint of American Liberals, would not recognize his spiritual offspring in today’s liberal President Obama and his handling of the Middle East. Jefferson, as a trade commissioner and then ambassador in Paris for six years (1784-90), faced almost daily the tragedy of American hostages enslaved by violent Muslims and his own frustrating inability to liberate them. However, what he learned served him well as the leading hawk for war a decade later when he became president and went to war against belligerent Islam.

More than two centuries after they died off the coast of present-day Libya, the remains of the first 13 Navy commandos in U.S. history — in the words of one supporter, the “earliest Navy SEALs” — are one step closer to coming home after the U.S. House voted last week to insist the Pentagon get them back. Brushing off prior opposition from the Pentagon, House lawmakers attached the directive to the annual defense policy bill that cleared the chamber on Thursday, with backers saying it was time to honor the daring men as fallen heroes. “The United States has an...

Mr. Williams is a student at the University of Washington and an intern at HNN. Though a definite link has yet to be established (or publicized), it becomes more apparent with each passing day that the acts of terror on September 11 were undertaken by individuals belonging to or associated with the Al-Qaida organization. While the group has ties to the Taliban, the current ruling faction in Afghanistan, neither can really be considered a government, making war with either an unconventional one. Yet the United States is hardly unused to combating unconventional foes. While the Vietnam War and the "War...