Free Republic

Isn’t great that America is back and the adults are back in charge? America is back, all right: all the way back to 1979, the last time we had a president so weak that enemies of the United States stormed one of our embassies and took hostages. On Thursday, the Yemeni media outlet Al-Masdar Online reported that Houthi jihadis in Yemen, which are backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, stormed our embassy in Sana’a, seizing “large quantities of equipment and materials.” Just days before that, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), they “kidnapped three Yemeni nationals...

What do you call a country whose prime minister chairs Russia’s six-nation military alliance, hosts a permanent Russian military base, holds a bilateral mutual defense pact with Russia, and whose customs and tariff policy is subsumed within Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union trade zone? The answer is, surely, “Russia’s ally.” Today, Armenia, the nation in question, is more under the control of the Kremlin than at any point since the collapse of the Soviet Union to which it once belonged. But it’s not what Armenians want. Who would? Still, the United States allowed this to happen to a Christian nation whose...

"Colossal Stakes as Leaders Meet to Talk Climate," ran the headline. "The Last Best Hope," ran the subhead, which turned out to be a quote from resident Joe Biden's climate czar John Kerry. But these alarmist headings were not atop an editorial. They topped the lead news story in Sunday's New York Times, the opening line of which set the tone for Glasgow: "The future is on the line." Somini Sengupta, climate reporter, then laid out the "colossal stakes" of the summit. "As presidents and prime ministers arrive in Glasgow this week for a pivotal climate summit, the outcome will...

“'My Cuban Missile Crisis tryst with JFK': When the United States stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy sent his wife and children away to stay at the family's summer farm in Virginia. But he pulled his 19-year-old mistress (Mimi Alford) close, summoning her from her college while he stared down the Soviet Union.” But don’t take this appalling datum from me. After all, I’m an “embittered right-wing-Cuban exile with an axe to grind.” Fine. Take it from JFK’s mistress-of- the-minute herself. Details here. Presidential mistress (while a teenager) Mimi...

Human rights usually feature prominently in America's political rhetoric but fade insignificance when it comes to concrete action. That trend can take a historic turn when it comes to Iran, where a genocidal madman has taken the presidency. That the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran hasn't galvanized governments in the West and in the U.S. in particular to pursue his prosecution is still a mystery. Human rights groups, UN experts, Nobel laureates, scores of elected officials, lawmakers, and journalists have already expressed outrage over Raisi's rise to power. And justifiably so. In 1988, Raisi was one of the members...

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed a quartet of former senators and widows of former senators to key ambassadorial posts, in a rare move by the chamber to approve some of President Biden’s diplomatic nominees. The Senate unanimously confirmed former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) as U.S. ambassador to Turkey; former senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) as ambassador to New Zealand; Victoria Reggie Kennedy as ambassador to Austria; and Cindy McCain as ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, which encompasses three U.N. agencies.... ...Tuesday’s votes came as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has threatened to delay the confirmations of dozens...

During his victory speech on Nov. 8, resident Joe Biden promised to “make America respected around the world again.” It’s only been eight months since Biden took office and he’s already proven that promise laughably false. He’s consistently put Americans last, abandoned our allies, and aided our enemies. Under his leadership, America is less feared and more vulnerable to threats foreign and domestic. Far from being respected, Biden has embarrassed the United States on the world stage. Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal included relying on the Taliban to ensure safe evacuations for Americans and reportedly giving these terrorists the names of...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is comfortable working with Joe Biden on climate change. Johnson recently praised Biden’s promise to double U.S. funding for green energy in developing nations, adding, “It’s fantastic to see the United States really stepping up and showing a lead.” But is Johnson Biden’s equal or a subordinate? Jen Psaki deemed Johnson guilty of insubordination for taking questions from the British press at a joint White House meeting. But Johnson’s capitulation to Biden’s radical Net Zero ideology harms his standing with fellow Tories whose pleas for leniency on climate controls fall on deaf ears....

Are we witnessing the end of United States global supremacy? This is a question that many academics and policy and foreign relations experts have asked for some time now. While the answer to the question may not be an immediate one, there are certainly enough indications that China is not only willing to challenge the U.S. as the world's superpower but that they are already doing it in more ways than most Americans likely realize. While it is true that nothing lasts forever and that, at some point, all things must come to an end, it would certainly be helpful...

A South Korean court has issued an unprecedented order for assets seized from Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to be sold to compensate World War II forced labourers, prompting Tokyo to protest on Tuesday. ...On Monday, the Daejeon District Court ruled that two patents and two trademarks held by Mitsubishi Heavy should be sold to compensate two female Korean plaintiffs in their 90s, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency....

As Biden administration officials scramble to contain the political fallout over a surge in migration at the border, they have made a series of false or misleading claims, capping off a summer of bending the truth to avoid controversies. From Afghanistan to the economy to the border, President Joe Biden and his top aides have often attempted to deflect criticism of their policies by providing inaccurate information to the public, with varying degrees of success. Here are some of the less-than-truthful claims offered up by the Biden administration since July....

Editor's Note: This piece was authored by Sam Lewis.“If you do not shape the world, you will be shaped by it.” That’s what George Osborne, who served in the administration of British Prime Minister David Cameron, had to say about the Battle for Aleppo in the Syrian Civil War back in 2016. Soon after his remarks, the Syrian Army, supported by Russian airstrikes, cemented President Assad’s brutal regime. Today, it seems we’ve finally learnt the lessons from Syria. This week’s unprecedented jointly televised announcement of a new defensive partnership between the UK, US and Australia, dubbed AUKUS, is a testament...

Deterrence is the ancient ability to scare somebody off from hurting you, your friends or your interests -- without a major war. Desire peace? Then be prepared for war. Or so the Romans believed. It's an easily understood concept in the abstract. But deterrence still remains a mystical quality in the concrete since it is only acquired with difficulty and yet easily forfeited. The tired democracies of the 1930s learned that lesson when they kept acquiescing to Hitler's serial aggressions. Hitler's Germany foolishly later attacked a far stronger Soviet Union in 1941, given Moscow's lost deterrence after its lackluster performances...

In a diplomatic coup, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a deal last week with the U.K. and U.S. to have those Anglo-American allies help build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. A $66 billion French deal to provide Canberra with diesel electric-powered submarines, among the largest defense contracts Paris had ever negotiated, was blown off. "A stab in the back!" said Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who had been kept in the dark on the secret talks. "There has been duplicity, contempt and lies." Le Drian compared President Joe Biden to former President Donald Trump. President Emmanuel Macron recalled his...

A year ago, Serbia and Kosovo signed a normalization agreement in the Oval Office. Now, those terms are expiring and Biden could care less.One year ago on September 4, the world celebrated the signing of the Kosovo-Serbia Economic Normalization Agreement in the White House Oval Office. President Trump had brought President Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia and then-Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti of Kosovo together to take an enormous step towards resolving their historic conflict. It was Donald Trump’s vision for Kosovo and Serbia to normalize their economic relations and help usher-in a complete Balkan-wide revitalization. President Trump believed that the perceived...

There’s no nice way to say this, but somebody has to: There have been a lot of bad reactions on the right to the Afghanistan calamity.em>(Watch the video for the monologue and an interview with WMAL and The Daily Caller’s Vince Coglianese on the how we can fix our foreign policy.)The war in Afghanistan is finally at its end. It was a catastrophe and a mess — a mess that some of us saw up close, a mess that some of us are still living through in Kabul — and a mess that cost many lives.There’s no nice way to...

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the country was united behind him. The America First Committee, the largest anti-war movement in our history, which had the backing of President Herbert Hoover and future Presidents John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford, was closing its doors and enlisting. When President George W. Bush stood atop the ruins of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan after the attack of 9/11, the country was united behind him. resident Joe Biden, however, knows no such unity....

*snip* The unelected operators, bureaucrats within the Department of State (DoS), make U.S. foreign policy from within the executive branch. There is a pretense promoted by media that the executive branch, specifically the President of the United States, is controlling the internal mechanism of the U.S. State Department, but that’s a ruse. If it were true, the State Department would act like they had accountability to someone or something; they do not. Team Obama, those in power over the Democrat political mechanisms, are using the Biden crew as useful and disposable idiots. Because Biden was installed, not elected, the Chicago...

The deadly attacks in Afghanistan should be the final straw for Biden, whose incompetence has now cost the lives of at least a dozen American soldiers.Joe Biden is not capable or competent to hold the office of the presidency. If there were any doubt on this point, his press conference Thursday evening in the wake of a pair of coordinated suicide bombings in Kabul should put the matter to rest.The first blast Thursday killed 13 U.S. soldiers at a Kabul airport gate, along with scores of Afghans. Another bomb at a nearby hotel killed dozens more. Between the two blasts,...

(H/T Bob Ireland)Yes, I am angry watching the events in Afghanistan unravel.American “leaders” have reneged on American honor and dignity. Foreign policy is being dictated by our enemies. It’s unstated so far, but in my judgment, we’ve surrendered.This is a complete and total disaster, and our enemies will shame us forever. The entire chain of command should immediately resign in disgrace. (And the president should step down: Clearly, he is incapable of making clearheaded decisions and placing the safety and security of American citizens as his highest priority — that is what a president is supposed to do!)Those left behind...