Free Republic

May 14, 2008 -- AS Hezbollah's terror army dismantles Lebanon, the world whistles "Ain't That a Shame." With its heavily funded proxies marching through an Arab democracy's ruins, Iran has arrived on the Mediterranean, outflanking Israel. Syria's surrogates punish Beirut. Lebanon's crippled government cringes at the whims of Hassan Nasrullah, Hezbollah's strongman. Terror rules. And not one civilized country lifts a finger. This doesn't mean that war will be avoided at the "negligible" cost of Lebanese lives and freedom. It just means that the inevitable showdown with Hezbollah will be a bloodier mess when it finally comes.

(KUNA) -- Ambassador Robert Dillon, who served during the explosion of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983, recalled on Friday how this incident shaped US foreign policy in this embattled country 25 years ago, and indicated that Washington possessed information about the culprits. In an interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Dillon said the misinterpretation of US foreign policy towards the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982 and the "Iranian grievances" against the United States are the two main motivations behind this attack. [SNIP] He said that investigations revealed that a Shiite family and an emerging radical group from...

January 8, 2008 -- EARLY Sunday morning, the US Navy lost its nerve and guaranteed that American sailors will die at Iranian hands in the future. ...[SNIP]... On Sunday, the Iranians tested us. We failed. They'll probe us again. And every time we fail to react decisively, we raise the number of future US casualties. Remember the USS Cole? You bet the Iranians do. They plan to better that attack by an order of magnitude. For almost 70 years, we've deployed the finest navy in the history of the world. But it looks increasingly as if we've gone from "Damn...

ZURICH (Reuters) - The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) is set to consolidate its position as the alpine nation's most popular grouping in a parliamentary election on Sunday, outstripping its rivals after a provocative campaign. SNIP The SVP has again run a controversial campaign calling for the extradition of foreigners who commit serious crimes. It has been criticised by opponents and has ruffled the usually smooth waters of Switzerland's consensus-based politics. SNIP

Together with perhaps a million other inquiring minds who want to know, I am still trying to figure out what happened over Dayr az Zawr in northern Syria on Sept. 6. And even more, what happened on the ground. ...[SNIP] It further follows, I think, that much of the war in the Middle East is going offstage, curiously in the interest of all parties. For what we've found in the West is that the "peace movement" only responds to what is presented in the mainstream media. It makes a certain amount of sense, today as during imperial frontier conflicts in...

Elvira Arellano speaks to the Mexican Congress about her deportation from the United States. Elvira claims the U.S. broke that law first by 'allowing' illegal immigrants to pay taxes. [Video clip follows]

[FROM THE CONCLUSION] I know these people [terrorists} are an aberration, people gone wrong as human beings sometimes do. If these doctors are guilty, they must be brought to justice. I only hope that we remember to deal with these individuals as just that - individuals who chose evil on their own and not as representative of their faith or profession. I hope we as a community refrain from generalizing the acts of suspected criminals to Muslim doctors in general.

Rice for 'Strong Message' to Stop Syrian Intimidation in Lebanon U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Sunday on the international community to send a "very strong message" to Syria that any continued interference in Lebanon would not be tolerated. Asked about the failure of the latest Arab League mission to re-launch an inter-Lebanese dialogue, Rice decried what she said were Syrian intimidation attempts in Lebanon. "There needs to be a very strong message to Syria that that is not going to be tolerated," she told journalists flying with her to Paris, where she is set to participate Monday in...

The State Department has announced several rule changes designed to alleviate lengthy backlogs caused by a new requirement that citizens returning from most North American locations have passports. This month, it temporarily lifted the requirement for travelers who have a printed receipt showing they applied for a passport and offered $60 refunds to applicants who paid to have their requests processed faster.

No matter one’s position on immigration, the nation is in agreement: there is a problem that needs to be addressed. The other no-brainer is that the problem stems in large part because our laws have been set aside, if not openly flouted by many (businesses, police, sanctuary cities etc). Why did that happen and who specifically is responsible? (In this, and previous administrations) When confronted with catastrophes, recently 9/11 and Katrina, there is always a howl in Washington: Who is responsible? Who should be fired? Could it have been prevented…? And we get endless hearings and/or prosecutions, sometimes on matters...

From the very last part: Americans stand at hell’s gate in regard to al-Qaeda. Our country is vulnerable to attacks worse than those visited upon us on 9/11, yet Congress is busy reinstalling risk-aversion at the CIA by tearing the guts out of its rendition program. Since 9/11, the U.S. military has been engaged with the insurgent forces of al-Qaeda and its allies, forces entirely apart from the al-Qaeda forces that attacked in America. All the while, al-Qaeda’s ability to plan and execute attacks in the United States has been enormously aided by the Bush administration and the leadership of...

Fifty years ago, another Western power fought “Islamofascism”—then walked away. [SUBTITLE]...[SNIP] The paras won the Battle of Algiers. By the fall of 1957, the city was free of violence and would remain so for four years. And the legend of the paras in their colorful regimental berets grew: many Frenchmen would come to see them as their country’s most legitimate political force. But elite metropolitan France—or at least its liberal intellectuals—was not willing to accept torture done in its name. Repugnance at the paras’ methods waxed during 1957, inciting an uproar in the Parisian journals. Then it waned, the mood...

"He [Imus] didn't just cross the line," Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America."[SNIP] Before Obama's speech, the crowd was warmed up by a performance by Nappy Roots, a popular hip-hop group.[SNIP] U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, contemplating a run for president, met privately with rapper Ludacris to talk about young people.

YESTERDAY, the man directly responsible for conducting the war in Iraq received semi-official notice that he'll soon be relieved of his post. It's ironic that the semi-official notice came in a front-page New York Times story, considering how hostile the paper has been to the war effort and the Bush administration generally - and how profoundly angry senior Bush officials are at the Times. ...[SNIP]... The message: The president has lost confidence in the strategy and tactics designed and implemented by the generals running the war. They have, as the Times put it, "become more fixated on withdrawal than victory."

December 26, 2006 -- UMQASR, IRAQ WHILE the American political elite is using Iraq as an ex cuse for fighting internal political wars, a different reality is taking shape in parts of this war-torn nation. Wherever some measure of security is assured - that is to say in more than 80 percent of Iraq - towns and villages long left to die a slow death are creeping back to life. ....[SNIP]... Newsweek has just hailed the emergence of a booming market economy in Iraq as "the mother of all surprises," noting that "Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than...

DEFEATED Republicans are strangely jubilant, while victorious Democrats are shaking their heads in dismay. Why, oh why, did civil war have to erupt inside the Democratic Party only a week after its stunning triumph in the midterm elections? Item: Washington's new No. 1 Dem, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, decided she wanted her sleazy born-again-peacenik buddy Jack Murtha to be the House majority leader. That's the No. 2 slot. Not so fast, said the House's current No. 2 Dem, Steny Hoyer: He forcefully pushed back against Pelosi's efforts to oust him and trounced Murtha in yesterday's vote of Democratic House members.

IT WAS wrenching to listen to President Bush's news conference yesterday. He's struggling to do the right thing. But he's getting terrible advice. He's still counting on a political solution in Iraq. Ain't going to happen. And you can take that to the blood bank. Our famously loyal president has one grave flaw: He's a poor judge of character. He trusts the wrong people. Then he sticks by them. Bush met Russia's Vladimir Putin, "looked into his soul" - and failed to recognize that the guy is an unreformed secret policeman. He stubbornly defends Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon's...

[snip] The administration ignored an ironclad rule of conflict in failed societies: A fraction of 1 percent of the population, armed and determined, can destroy a fragile state. If you are not willing to kill that fraction of a percent, the remaining 99-plus percent will suffer terror, massacre and chaos. Our weakness of will and wishful thinking made Iraq safe for our enemies. They can walk the streets unarmed. We can't. We did the right and virtuous thing by deposing Saddam Hussein. There's no reason even now to regret that act. But history will condemn us - justly - for...

[SNIP] Mr. Woodward has been that amazing thing, the boring fabulist. The Bush White House has spent the past five years thinking they could manage him. Talk about a state of denial. Now he has thwarted me. I bought "State of Denial" thinking I might have a merry time bashing it and a satisfying time defending the innocent injured. But it is a good book. It may be a great one. It is serious, densely, even exhaustively, reported, and a real contribution to history in that it gives history what it most requires, first-person testimony.

David Brooks devoted his entire Sunday New York Times column to a truncated verbatim text of an interview he had on background with a Bush administration "policy maker" on our Middle East foreign policy. It reveals several shrewd assessments, but also an undeniable air of unreality and defeatism. If the comments are a true reflection of President Bush's views, then one is obliged to reassess virtually every word the administration expresses on the topics of the Middle East and terrorism.