Free Republic

Iraq’s Dysfunctional Parliament International observers view the Iraqi Parliament as “immature” or “dysfunctional.” The man on the street in Baghdad calls the elected body “irrelevant.”By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom June 12, 2007The Iraqi Council of Representatives, which meets in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, is currently an elected body of 275 seats filled by elected Parliamentarians or Legislators representing the various regions and factions of Iraq.After Saddam Hussein’s decades-long autocratic rule, this elected body is the first attempt at democracy in the long history of mankind in the Tigris-Euphrates region.Consequently, there is a steep learning curve and no history...

Hanoi, Beijing Using Executions As “Smack Down” For Cultural History of Corruption By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom May 29, 2007China and Vietnam each sentenced people to be executed today.In China, the villain is the state’s former director of drug review and acceptance. He was found guilty of accepting bribes and approving a drug after almost no testing that ultimately killed ten people. Think of the U.S. Director of the Food and Drug Administration sentenced to death for accepting a bribe to wink at proper testing of a drug.The execution may also be a signal to the west that the...

Threatened With a Loss of Free Media, Venezuela Riots By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom May 29, 2007On Monday morning, Venezuelian President His Excellency Hugo Chavez closed one of the two remaining TV networks in his country critical of his regime.  This was a blow to freedom of the press the people of Venezuela were not prepared to accept.  Rioting ensued.Those of us that live in most of the west know and appreciate the value of the free press.At last week’s graduation at the United States Naval Academy a central theme of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ commencement address was that, though it...

Notes on North Korean Missile and Nuclear Development By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom May 25, 2007The North Korean missile development program has been an evolutionary effort of engineering and testing. The first steps in North Korea’s development came from Russian developed missiles as old as 1950s era SCUD missiles.Most analysts now believe that North Korea has greatly benefited from cooperation with other nations such as Iran and Pakistan. Both nations already have developed mid-range ballistic missiles of good quality. Both nations have successfully tested these missiles.During 1997, analysts reported a surge in cargo aircraft flights between Pakistan and North...

Human Rights in China: Trainwreck Amnesty International issued harsh criticism on human rights for almost every nation today: with China the record setter.By John E. Carey May 23, 2007American TV and print news watchers love a good drunken starlet, a lost whale or an accident that has never seemed to have occurred to anyone before. Today two trains collided in Denver, one loaded with beer and the other with asphalt. What a mess.But some of the “odd” news is really very serious and important.Today, The Washington Post’s Foreign Service reporter wrote that Chinese people were rioting in southern Bobai, China, 110...

China and the Food Supply: The Ugly Story of China’s Culture of Corruption By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom May 8, 2007SARS. Bird flu. Contaminated dog food. Contaminated pharmaceuticals. Chickens held off the market. Pigs dying.“Food fear” is real. There is and should be real fear about the way China, or at least many Chinese firms involved, handle their responsibilities in food and feed manufacturing and development.Every once in a while a journalist gets to go back into the archieves and find something that was “relevant then and even more important now”.On Sunday, May 4, 2003, The Washington Times published...

Missile defense moves ahead By John E. Carey May 1, 2007 On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced from the Oval Office, "I've reached a decision which offers a new hope for our children in the 21st century." He explained his vision -- and his defense budget's inclusion -- of the first funds to go toward this nation's missile defense effort.     Liberals, and most of the media, derided the president's project as "star wars." Since 1983, America's Missile Defense effort has become a multinational, multi-system effort: and it has come down to earth and the sea.

Navy Simultaneously Destroys Ballistic Missile, Cruise Missile Targets By John E. Carey Peace and FreedomAt approximately 5:40 PM Eastern time yesterday, Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion of the latest Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “hit to kill” intercept flight test.Conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy, the test involved the simultaneous engagements of a ballistic missile target and cruise missile target.Both targets were destroyed.The combat team of the ship had just seconds to find, identify, make an evaluation and engage these two targets.

Navy Missile Defense Test Tonight Most Complex Navy Missile Defense Test Ever By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom April 26, 2007 If all goes according to plan, the United States Navy will conduct the most complex Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) event ever at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at sea near Kauai on Thursday.USS Lake Erie is scheduled to detect, track, provide a firing solution and launch missiles at two targets simultaneously.  The targets are a Ballistic Missile and a cruise missile. This kind of event has never before been conducted.

China’s Top Admiral Visits U.S., “Issues” Abound By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom April 5, 2007China’s top Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Vice Adm. Wu Sheng Li, was in Washington yesterday and for the rest of this week is visiting the largest naval complex in the United States at Norfolk, Virginia.Officially called the peoples’ Liberation Army (Navy), China’s naval service has been undergoing something of a renaissance as China’s military structure is slightly decreasing its investment in its large land force and emphasizing more naval and air force capability.Vice Admiral Wu’s trip was originally arranged by then Pacific...

Ever See a Grown Man Weep in a Museum? I am the weeper as I absorb the suffering of my bride and her family and millions of othersBy John E. Carey March 4, 2007This is a story that starts in Saigon, Vietnam in 1975.Millions of people lost their country, their flag, their freedom of speech, their freedom of religion, their right to vote in fair elections, the right to protest or even complain, their right to privacy and many other rights all free people take for granted.My wife voted for the first time in her life last November.The people of Vietnam were...

U.S. Makes Overture to Thailand: We need You as an Ally; A Democratic Ally By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom February 19, 2007In a major show of support for the Thai government, the United States has decided to proceed with the largest annual joint Thai-US military exercise, “Cobra Gold.”Military analysts and observers were worried that since the bloodless military coup in Thailand last September 19, that removed the democratically elected government of Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, the United States would cancel the exercise.

China: Big Dog in Asia By John E. Carey The Washington Times February 18, 2007Headlines around the globe in bold type are proclaiming: “North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament.”On the same day North Korea seemed to be making a promise, China jumped in with a piece of its own headline making news: “China says no more satellite-killer (ASAT) tests.” Should we believe them?No. The record of going through with promises and treaties by China and North Korea is abysmal. In many Asian cultures, and especially Chinese culture, the only thing that counts is achieving one’s goals no matter how long it...

America Can’t Win At War: “You Can’t Handle The Truth,” Asian Expert Says By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom January 19, 2007As we near the completion of the National Football League season, what is the most common question one hears other than, “Where will you watch the Super Bowl?”The question Americans ask MOST is: “Who do you think will win?”Americans tend to see the world in terms of “winning” and “losing.” In every sport, during every week, of eavery season, nearly every newspaper publishes the “won-lost” records.The fact that one side must be the winner and the other...

U.S. Military Adjustments for “Long War” Lagging Reality; Further Adjustments Needed By John E. Carey January 12, 2007Just less than a year ago, of February 3, 2006, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world.He said he had come to refer to this struggle as “the long war.”“Compelled by a militant ideology that celebrates murder and suicide...

Tribute: Emma Lazarus: Answering a Calling By John E. Carey January 10, 2007“I fell violently in love again…with a lady I met…last night and from whom I hope never to be separated – a poetess, a magaziness, and a Jewess, Miss Emma Lazarus, whose name you doubtless know….”– Philosopher William James to his wife, in London, 1882Who was Emma Lazarus?You know her as the American poet who wrote the famous poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore….”“The editor...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kenny Chesney won the top prize at the Academy of Country Music Awards for the second consecutive year on Tuesday, while the Dixie Chicks received a crowd-pleasing verbal smack from the show's host. Chesney, the Nashville pinup briefly married to actress Renee Zellweger, was named entertainer of the year at the Las Vegas ceremony. Keith Urban and Sara Evans nabbed the respective top male and female vocalist honors. Brad Paisley, the event's leading nominee with six nominations, ended up with three statuettes, including album of the year. The other multiple winners were Carrie Underwood and Brooks...

European aircraft maker Airbus will pay out millions of dollars to airlines hit by A380 superjumbo delivery delays. Chief operating officer John Leahy said the group would be paying a "couple of million dollars" in compensation during an interview on Australian TV. Airbus has said that the plane is running between four and six months behind, with the first delivery now expected to be late next year. Airbus has secured 159 firm orders for the plane so far.

It begins with the buy-in, and nobody is buying into the poker craze more religiously than college students. The payoffs -- and losses -- are staggering. "Me and my buddy Pete, we played two days nonstop over winter break. First we hit the Hard Rock Casino [in Hollywood, Fla.] around 9 p.m. We entered a multitable no-limit [Texas hold 'em] tournament with a $65 buy-in that went from 11 at night until 7 a.m. with about 200 players. I won. Then we went to a cash game at a guy's house. Then back to the Hard Rock. Then back...

As we marveled over the basketball brawl between players and spectators at a recent Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game -- and then the fourth-quarter melee between Clemson University and University of South Carolina football players -- I kept thinking, "broken windows." The "broken windows" theory of social breakdown goes more or less like this: If a broken window in a building is left unrepaired, pretty soon all the windows are broken, and so goes the neighborhood. By now familiar, the theory was conceived and popularized by Harvard University professors James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. They wrote in the March 1982...