Free Republic

The classic case for confiscation of weapons in Western Civilization in the last hundred years, is the government will defend you. You do not need weapons to defend yourself. The Taliban is reported to have emulated this Western propaganda in Kabul, after taking over in August of 2021. From Reuters.com:KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent...

In December 2019, Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post published an extraordinary compilation of documents that revealed American officials discussed the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan in private but gave often glowing reports in public. Some of the reports exposed the duplicity between what Obama said publicly but knew privately. Obama claimed he was on track in 2014 to bring the war to a “responsible end.” In fact, Whitlock wrote, “the war was nowhere near a conclusion, ‘responsible’ or otherwise.”

A really good and personal series of memories and interviews of survivors of the Rhodesian Bush War and subsequent white genocide. The author:"How many times have you heard people say, I wished we had captured our parent's stories? Or I wish we captured those special moments when our child was born? Life can get so busy and noisy, we end up passing these moments by... This channel is aimed at inspiring you to capture more and we'll be providing examples that are timeless in the hope to make sure you don't leave the memories behind and can be re-lived by...

No link, because it's in a book, not on a web-site somewhere. That's why I put it in general chat. One can however always check the book (and one hopes reads the whole thing). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In 1975, President Ford was left to manage the difficult ending of the Vietnam War. President Ford went to Congress for a relief package to allow American personnel and our allies to evacuate. However, there was ONE USSENATOR- who opposed any such support. The result was the...

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter is sometimes called a better former president than he was president. Nodding to Carter’s decades of work as a globe-trotting humanitarian but with a glaring reminder of his landslide defeat in 1980, the backhanded compliment rankles Carter allies and, they say, the former president himself. Yet now, 40 years removed from the White House, the most famous resident of Plains, Georgia, is riding a new wave of attention as biographers, filmmakers, climate activists and Carter’s fellow Democrats push to recast his presidential legacy, even as Republicans sometimes try to remind voters of the volatile economy...

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Robert Farley is a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Farley is the author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), the Battleship Book (Wildside, 2016), and Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020). What if the United States had never invaded Afghanistan? The question is not as absurd as it sounds. Popular support for military retribution against Al Qaeda following the 9/11 attacks was high, but this retribution did...

The story of the complex events that occurred during liberation of Dachau Camp by the US Army in April 1945.Liberating Dachau 1945 (16mins)

The surviving granddaughters of Alphonse “Al” Capone, one of the country’s most notorious gangsters, are auctioning off a slew of the mob boss’ treasures that include his “favorite” gun and letters to his son he wrote from prison. Sacramento, California-based auctioneer Witherell’s said it has authenticated the items included in the collection and will run the live auction on Oct. 8. Among the more eye-popping items listed in the collection is the ruthless racketeer’s “favorite” gun, a Colt .45 pistol that’s been passed down through the generations of Capone’s descendants and will start bidding at $50,000. The collection, called “A...

Some movie goers may still be reeling after seeing some very rare footage of San Francisco around the time of the 1906 earthquake. A small crowd of people turned up at the Edison Theater in Fremont Saturday to view the premiere of a nine-minute film of the devastation. The footage from the San Francisco-based Miles Brothers film studio was discovered at the Alemany Flea Market last summer after being missing for more than a century. Anniversary of the quake, which destroyed much of Santa Rosa too, is Wednesday.

More than a century after San Francisco’s deadly 1906 earthquake, a film reel with nine minutes of footage capturing the city two weeks after the devastation surfaced at a flea market and it will soon be shown to the public, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle. The long-lost find portrays some of the city’s post-quake decimation, including City Hall with its dome nearly destroyed, the Chronicle said Saturday. Much of the city was flattened and thousands were killed in the so-called “Great Quake” and ensuing fire on April 18, 1906. The nitrate film reel discovered at San...

Signs will be added to explain the ‘whiteness’ of sculpture plaster casts inside Cambridge University’s archaeology museum as part of a new anti-racist strategy. Plaster casts of Roman and Greek sculptures are said to give a ‘misleading impression’ of the whiteness and ‘absence of diversity’ of the ancient world. And the Classics Faculty at Cambridge University has revealed it will ‘turn the problem into an opportunity’, according to the Daily Telegraph.... ...academics will be encouraged to include ‘content warnings’ to lectures and reading materials.

The mysterious Denisovans were only formally identified about a decade ago, when a single finger bone unearthed from a cave in Siberia clued scientists in to the ancient existence of a kind of archaic hominin we'd never before seen.But that's only one side of the story. The truth is, modern humans had in fact already encountered Denisovans a long time before this. We crossed paths with them an eternity ago.So far back, in fact, that we forgot about them entirely. Especially as they – and other archaic humans, such as the Neanderthals – faded into the unliving past, and Homo...

Thursday on FNC’s “Hannity,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) voiced his frustration over the Biden administration’s mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He argued for Congress’ involvement and warned of the long-lasting implications that failure would have on the United States.

Brian Dean Wright, a former CIA Ops Officer, explains in a brief but incisive Twitter thread that “former US intelligence colleagues are angry and deeply worried at what has happened in Afghanistan.” Wright warns that “there’s nearly universal belief that America and the world are in for one of the most dangerous, unpredictable times in modern history.” He continues: Afghanistan has shown the world — enemies & allies alike — that our military & intel assets are largely irrelevant because we can’t deploy them successfully. The blame lays at the feet of multiple Presidents. The Generals. The Spies. The Congress....

While US support for the ANA has declined over the past year, the primary issues involved distribution rather than a lack of abundance. The problem of corruption among the Afghan elite turned out to be a bigger problem than a simple siphoning away of vast stores of wealth; it cut at the very sinew of the national government, preventing Kabul from mobilizing military force at a time of critical need. Nor was this purely an Afghan problem; US contractors played a crucial role in facilitating the corruption across the Kabul government. Armies fight for any number of reasons, from the...

Veterans from all eras are reacting to the events in Afghanistan, such as the U.S withdrawal and the takeover by the Taliban. You are not alone. Veterans may question the meaning of their service or whether it was worth the sacrifices they made. They may feel more moral distress about experiences they had during their service. It’s normal to feel this way. Talk with your friends and families, reach out to battle buddies, connect with a peer-to-peer network, or sign up for mental health services. Scroll down for a list common reactions and coping advice. Resources available right now: Veterans...

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China and The Great U.S.-China Tech War. Follow him on Twitter @GordonGChang. Chang is also a Contributing Editor to 1945. The costs in blood of such a move would be high. Richard Fisher of the Northern Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center told 1945 that China could lose about 50,000 troops, sailors, and pilots even if it were able to both achieve complete surprise in mobilizing thousands of barges, ships, and planes and prevent others from coming to Taiwan’s rescue. “Should China fail to gain complete surprise and the...

By December of 2001 it was clear that bin Laden had not been eliminated, and that the Taliban—though kicked out of power—were not extinguished and for the next two decades would continue fighting. During the final days of the Tora Bora battle, the George W. Bush administration made critical misjudgments, especially the decision not to use U.S. military assets to seal the border with Pakistan, relying instead on airstrikes, Afghan militia, and Pakistan’s Frontier Corps forces to block the mountain passes. This decision allowed Bin Laden and his bodyguards to walk unmolested out of Tora Bora into Pakistan’s unregulated tribal...

From his first day in office, Joe Biden committed to putting freedom pioneer Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, and some time around 2028, it might happen. In her perilous role as a scout and spy for the U.S. Army during the Civil War, and as an abolitionist and humanitarian, she earned it. She risked re-enslavement at least 19 times in helping others to escape. Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson, a favorite target of those who rail against his slave ownership – perhaps totaling up to 150 people – while ignoring the context. Nearly everyone in Jackson’s environment was racist...

A forthcoming sale of Nazi-related items by a Queensland, Australia auction house is being denounced by Jewish groups. While Jewish leaders are describing the auction as “sickening,” the Gold Coast-based auction house is defending its decision to hold the auction, claiming that it is important to remember the past, the Brisbane Times reported. Twenty-two pieces of Nazi memorabilia will be listed by Danielle Elizabeth Auctions, including an Ordnungspolizei (“order police”) uniform containing the SS symbol that is expected to sell for up to $1,500, sleeves embroidered with eagles and swastikas and swastika and skull pins from Waffen-SS hats. Also for...