Free Republic

Whether it’s the Russia-Ukraine war, or the Israeli-Hamas war, NATO remains a big part of U.S. decision-making. Indeed, the U.S.-led postwar alliance has lasted 75 years, and it’s fair to say that nearly everything the U.S. does overseas involves NATO, directly or indirectly. But increasingly, average Americans are uneasy about the alliance, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. A significant number of Americans, though not yet a majority, feel the burdens of the U.S.’ NATO leadership as unfairly distributed, according to the online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,378 adults taken from Sept. 27-29 The first question was elemental: “Does the U.S. participation...

The decision to move forward with providing the tanks marks a reversal for the Biden administration, which had been resisting pressure from Germany to send them to Ukraine. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that the United States is sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in its war against Russia. The U.S. will also provide the necessary training and supplies needed to operate and run these tanks, he said. NBC News reported the development Tuesday. The president said sending the tanks will "enhance Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territory and achieve its strategic objectives" because they are "the most capable...

Antony Blinken said Belarus is using migration as a weapon and said US is 'looking at tools it has' to respond Kamala Harris condemned Lukashenko's 'troubling actions' on the border and warned 'world is watching' But Belarus hit back, as defence minister said West is trying to 'initiate conflict' and he will 'respond harshly' Came after Belarus and Russia held military drills near border, with UK troops deployed to beef up defences Russia also flew two nuclear-capable bombers close to the UK with RAF Typhoons deployed to escort them US also warned that Russia is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine...

ROME — President Biden sought to reverse key policies and approaches of former president Donald Trump during this weekend’s summit of the Group of 20, and attempted to ensure those reversals would stay in place even if there is a change in American leadership.... ...“The United States of America is the most critical part of this entire agenda,” Biden said at a Sunday news conference, responding to a suggestion that the U.S. return to global leadership remains in doubt. “Everyone sought me out...." ...But Biden’s top advisers acknowledged that world leaders approached the talks with a concern that Trump, or...

The U.S. Defense Secretary's itinerary to Eastern Europe was bound to anger Moscow, which announced it was shuttering its NATO mission and kicking NATO diplomats out of Moscow. "We don't have proper conditions for basic diplomatic activities," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Moscow blames NATO for not being interested in "equal dialogue or joint efforts to defuse military-political tension." The decision comes after NATO expelled eight diplomats from Russia's mission earlier this month, saying they were working as undeclared intelligence officers. En route to NATO this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Georgia and Ukraine,,, ...NATO is now trying...

Do you remember two years ago when Iraq was going to fight the Kurds in a different part of Syria. Many people wanted us to fight with the Kurds against Iraq, who we just fought for. I said no, and the Kurds left the fight, twice. Now the same thing is happening with Turkey...... .....The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years. Turkey considers the PKK the worst terrorists of all. Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them! We are monitoring the situation closely. Endless Wars! Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC...

Is the New York Times "airbrushing" history again? It would seem so. On Saturday, November 22, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko presided over a commemoration in Kiev of the 75th anniversary of the famine genocide of 1932-1933 that took the lives of 7-10 million Ukrainians. Known as the Holodomor (Ukrainian for "murder by hunger"), it is one of the greatest mass murders in history, and one of the cruelest ... The New York Times prides itself on being the national "newspaper of record" and still carries its longtime motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print" in the upper left-hand corner...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he had spoken to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible mutual defense treaty between the two nations, just days before Israelis go to the polls.

“I remember… being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba.. It just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against the rich ugly people….In 1959 everybody was totally convinced that Fidel Castro was the worst guy in the world and all of the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro…They forgot that he educated their kids, gave their kids healthcare, totally transformed the society…..So they expected this tremendous uprising in Cuba, but it never came.” (Bernie Sanders.) So a prominent Democrat sings the praises Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s...

Ahmed Abu Khattala is directly connected to the covert transfer of U.S. arms from Qatar to Libya in the initial 2011 decision to arm the Benghazi “rebels”. Against the backdrop of recent discoveries about Qatar giving some of the aforementioned arms, specifically stinger missiles, to the Taliban in Afghanistan - Khattala became a risk of exposure to the White House. They needed to throw a bag over him.

An Army brigade from Fort Riley, Kan., some 4,000, soldiers, will begin helping to train African militaries. The idea is to help African troops beat back a growing terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida. The American troops will head over in small teams over the course of the next year. The Dagger Brigade returned to Kansas last year from a deployment to Iraq, where it trained and advised that country's security forces. Now unit commander Col. Jeff Broadwater is preparing to do the same kind of mission but in a different place. So Broadwater is scouring his brigade for unique skills....

Woody Island is a speck of land in the middle of the South China Sea, not quite a square mile in size. Over the past 80 years it has been occupied by French Indochina, Imperial Japan, the Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China, South Vietnam, and, after a brief war in 1974, the People’s Republic again. Now known as Yongxing to the Chinese (or Phu Lam to the Vietnamese, who still lay claim to it), the island has an airstrip, a harbor, and a few hundred Chinese residents, none native-born, many of whom make their living as fishermen....

Conflicts Of Interest I'm a little late this time around with my annual declaration of potential conflicts of interests. I do this every year because I think readers have a right to know where journalists are coming from. I admit that being a blue-collar guy who doesn't take $25,000 consulting fees like George Will, it's a bit easier for me than some of journalism's six-figure stars. When Will quoted tycoon Conrad Black in a column recently, he neglected to mention his financial arrangement with the man, which, when it was exposed, he said was none of your business. I respectfully...