Free Republic

Two weeks ago, a NATO blockade of Kaliningrad, an outpost of Russia, was triggered when Lithuania blocked the transport of goods through Suwalki corridor. According to the Lithuanian justification they were following through on NATO sanctions against Russian goods. However, the escalation was very provocative toward Russia and discussions between Russia and NATO countries were tense. Apparently, Germany was increasingly concerned the blockade was creating a scenario where Russian military were going to escort the transport of railroad goods to Kaliningrad, and that would lead to escalated military conflict with Russia.

The last thing Randy Sandifer imagined when he was working in the yard alongside his father was that one day he would find himself halfway around the world - in the midst of a war - and later nominated for a Noble Peace Prize. ---break--- Sandifer joined the Army Reserves in December 2001 and deployed to Iraq after his sophomore year at the University of Mississippi. He was sent as an administrative clerk with the 412th Theater Engineer Command, but he volunteered to work with the soil lab and the environmental team, cleaning up pollutants left by U.S. forces. It...