Free Republic

Ukraine has blamed a “shortfall in foreign assistance” as it suffers a shortage of munitions, forcing it to make operations “smaller” in its Western-backed war against the Russian occupation. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi cited shell starvation “across the entire front line” — what he called a “very big problem” – and what Reuters paraphrased as “the drop in foreign military aid” as being major factors in the reduced combat readiness of Ukrainian troops. Speaking to the wire service in interview, the Ukrainian military leader said the volumes of artillery “are not sufficient for us today, given our needs”, so ammunition was...

Suitcases with funds amounting to over NIS 5 million (about $1.3 million) were found in the home of a senior Hamas member in the Jabalya area, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Monday. Additionally, many weapons were found by soldiers from the 551st Brigade in the Hamas member’s home.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with changes to America's immigration and border policies.After the Democratic president said this past week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a...

Here are two things I’m very, very tired of: Hearing how deadly important it is that we send billions more taxpayer dollars to fix the problems of other countries and watching my own country degrade and decay while being told everything is fine.The federal government is allegedly in some sort of high-stakes standoff between House Republicans, Senate Democrats, and the White House over yet another request from Joe Biden to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine and Israel. Politico on Monday summarized the supposed conflict, writing that “the White House is insisting that its multifaceted funding request move...

Two articles published this week give a stark assessment of Ukraine’s prospects in its war with Russia. One – by the commander in chief of the Ukrainian military – admits the battlefield has reached a stalemate and a long attritional war benefiting Moscow beckons. The other portrays Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as exhausted by the constant effort to cajole and persuade allies to keep the faith. Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, says in a long essay and interview with the Economist that “just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us...

Vivek Ramaswamy, a long-shot contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said in an interview that the United States should reduce its aid to Israel.In an interview on Rumble, a platform popular with far-right viewers, Ramaswamy said Israel should not get more aid than its Middle Eastern neighbors after 2028, the year that the current US aid package of $38 billion expires.

The Biden administration just promised another $10 billion in economic aid to Ukraine, bringing the to-date sum up around $200 billion, with more likely to roll out in the coming months. But for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenksy, that's just not enough, and he has harsh words for Americans who'd like to keep their tax dollars here at home as opposed to using them to line Ukraine's war chest. The one year anniversary of Russia's invasion of their neighbor Ukraine fell this week. "I would like to thank the American people," Zelensky began, in his sweatshirt emblazoned with a small Ukranian...

KYIV, UKRAINE — Tragedy struck Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky Friday as he shot himself in the eye with a rocket launcher he had received only days before as a gift from the United States. Zelensky was eager to try out his new gift in the backyard of his home. Unfortunately, the target of Russian President Vladimir Putin he set up was too close to his garage, causing the rocket to ricochet back and hit him in the eye. A source on the scene reported that Zelensky yelled out "Oh, fudge!" before falling to the ground in pain. Zelensky had appeared...

At this point, the United States has sent more than $17 billion in cash and military aid to Ukraine for that nation’s fight against the Russians. The United States has been far and away the largest, most generous patron of Ukraine’s government of any of the allies who are supporting this effort. But this has dragged on for quite a while now and it is long past time to begin seriously discussing the obvious question. How long are we supposed to keep this up? In fairly short order, the money we’ve sent to Ukraine will more than double the annual...

Nato and EU states are pushing for better tracking of weapons supplied to Ukraine in response to fears that criminal groups are smuggling them out of the country and on to Europe’s black market. “All these weapons land in southern Poland, get shipped to the border and then are just divided up into vehicles to cross: trucks, vans, sometimes private cars,” said one of the western officials. “And from that moment we go blank on their location and we have no idea where they go, where they are used or even if they stay in the country.” The potential for...

In remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke about why he was blocking a $40 billion Ukraine bill. Video ...

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Monday on her show “Deadline” that congressional Republicans were a threat to national security. Wallace said, “Over the weekend, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, either ignorant of which is always possible with him or unbothered by, also likely, his own continued startling hypocrisy, suggested Russia would never have invaded Ukraine ever in the first place if the U.S. had simply provided weapons to President Zelensky sooner. Here’s why that matters. You’ll remember just two years ago, Kevin McCarthy repeatedly defended the twice impeached ex-president’s campaign to hold up military aid for Ukraine in the...

The Biden administration is planning to throw Americans’ tax dollars at the Taliban without knowing how the money will be used, according to a watchdog group. “The Biden administration has laid out plans through the U.S. Treasury to open up the U.S. taxpayer dollars spigot back into Afghanistan,” Adam Andrzejewski of the group Open The Books said in a video on the organization’s website. “We run the risk of funding the world’s most dangerous foreign terrorist organization if we open up the U.S. taxpayer spigot through the Department of Treasury,” he said. On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive...

Deborah Lyons, the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, a wanted terrorist with the Haqqani Network, a Taliban component with close ties to Al-Qaeda. Lyons had served as Canada’s ambassador in Kabul when the Taliban carried out a suicide bombing against a Canadian embassy convoy. Lyons put up a monument to the security contractors who were wounded and killed, but they sued after being abandoned afterwards.

Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turns out to be the Taliban.

The Biden Administration chose this past week to inform Congress that it would be releasing millions of dollars in US assistance to the Palestinians, as armed clashes between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas intensified in the aftermath of Jerusalem Day on Monday.The funds are part of $100 million in aid the Administration has designated for Palestinian causes, which represented a huge policy reversal from the Trump Administration, which had cut off nearly all financial assistance for Palestinians.As the conflict intensifies despite U.S. calls for restraint, the administration notified Congress on Thursday that it will provide $10 million to Palestinian...

Shortly after Islamists attacked America on 9/11, then-Senator Joe Biden demanded that the United States should send a taxpayer-funded, "no strings attached" gift of $200 million to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bombshell report has revealed. In the weeks following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Biden reportedly said that "this would be a good time" to hand over a huge chunk of tax dollars to the Iranian regime while America was in mourning.

While the headline states Joe Biden ‘is under fire,’ almost every sentence in the story is designed to defend Biden’s actions, beginning with the rest of the title.A recent Politico article by Caitlin Emma on President Joe Biden’s hold of funding for border wall construction provides a perfect example of the press running cover for the Biden administration. Almost every sentence is designed to excuse or defend Biden’s action, and of course smear the Trump team in the process.Biden’s executive order on Jan. 20 ordered a hold on all funds being used for the construction of the wall along the...

At our current rate of spending, the U.S. will be unable to confront major problems in the future because we’ve already stretched ourselves too thin.America’s debt and deficits usually are spoken of in terms of economics, but they have huge implications for national security. To see why, start with the economics angle. Famed investor Michael Burry — who foresaw the housing market bust and was played by Christian Bale in the hit film “The Big Short” — has just issued a warning. In a series of tweets, Burry said that the stock market could crash because of too much debt....

>“Tons of aid”? Please read this before you repeat that statement: Myth: Israel Is the Largest Beneficiary of US Military Aid The aid that Israel does receive has strings attached to it that no other recipient has, such as the requirement that a minimum of 75% of the aid must be spent on US-made equipment. The remaining 25% may be used on non-US-made equipment only with US government approval. (This will increase until the figure is 100% by the end of the period of the current MOU.) US-made equipment that has become obsolete or obsolescent and is to be replaced...