Free Republic

Courting powerful Jewish donors for the second time in two months, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Sunday for a more aggressive foreign policy that defends American values abroad — even in "in some very messy, difficult places." "The rest of the world watches in desperation and hope that America will realize and act upon once again its indispensable place in the world," Christie, a prospective Republican presidential contender, said in a keynote address Sunday at the Champions of Jewish Values International awards gala in New York. "We must lead." He charged that America must represent the strongest military and...

President Barack Obama on Saturday used a speech to West Point cadets to defend his escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Obama also placed a heavy emphasis on winning international cooperation and bolstering non-military sources of American power. Obama’s remarks to the graduating class revealed both continuity with former President Bush’s hard stance against violent extremists and a break with the unilateralism that Bush critics called a defining feature of his presidency. “America has not succeeded by stepping outside the currents of cooperation, we have succeeded by steering those currents in the direction of liberty and justice – so nations...