Free Republic

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that President Obama’s inertia on whether to launch airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria is part of an overall foreign policy failure that is empowering China, North Korea, Russia and other rival nations. “It’s all related,” Rogers, R-Mich., told “Fox News Sunday." “The world sees the United States as withdrawn.” Rogers said the president’s apparent disengagement or slow response is the reason China has engaged U.S. pilots and Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved into eastern Ukraine without fear of consequence. “U.S. foreign policy is...

An influential Saudi prince blasted the Obama administration on Sunday for indecision and a loss of credibility with allies in the Middle East, saying that American efforts to secure a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians would founder without a clear commitment from President Obama. “We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president, which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia. “When that kind of assurance comes from a leader of a country like the United States, we expect him...

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network...

Former army chief General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf has said that Pak-US relations have reached a critical stage and it's time Pakistan took a decisive action in this regard. Speaking exclusively to Geo News on Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Saath, Musharraf said that the time has come for the army and ISI to come down the fence and decide to take or not to take action against Haqqani network. Otherwise, things may take a turn for worse, he said, adding indecisiveness is not going to help the situation at all. Musharraf went on to say that Pakistan should boldly take US...

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Editorial by John Ziegler Sarah Palin: Selfish, Hypocritical, Sellout 1/3/2012 As surreal as it may be, after spending over two years and several thousand dollars defending Sarah Palin at great personal cost, I now find myself in the bizarre position (three years to the day from starting the journey to Wasilla to do the interview of record on her 2008 VP run) of being perhaps the only conservative commentator willing to point out that Palin has now clearly revealed herself to be a selfish, hypocritical, sellout. While she was doing her presidential tease (an act that...

The first leg of Sarah Palin's nationwide bus tour may have raised more questions about her political future than it answered, but one inference is no longer in doubt: She is having fun. At just about every stop she made along her East Coast jaunt, the former Alaska governor took in the scenery, chatted amiably with locals, signed autographs and always seemed to have a smile on her face while she was doing it. And whenever members of the "lamestream media" shoved audio recorders and video cameras in her face, Palin cheerfully and thoroughly answered our questions, often lingering far...

WASHINGTON -- The new White House executive order on detainees at Guantanamo Bay has baffled critics, who say the administration needs to issue a clear decision on where it will try Sept. 11 terror mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. "I hope the president's new thinking on Guantanamo and military tribunals also signals a willingness to expedite the military prosecutions of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who praised the decision to restart military tribunals and hold prisoners indefinitely at Guantanamo. "The families of those who died have waited 10 years, and they deserve,...

The most-played sound bite from Barack Obama’s speech on Afghanistan will be the following: “I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home." It sounds odd because it is: we’re coming in heavy, but then we’re off. “If you put in a timeline you encourage the enemy to outwait you, to regard the strategy as not enduring,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US envoy to Afghanistan. "When I was ambassador the Taliban sent me a message saying ‘you have...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday. That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official. In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions...

We must hurry up and pass the largest economic stimulus bill in American History. We must hurry up and close Guantanamo Bay detention camp and release many of the known terrorists into our nation. We must hurry up and stop sound torture techniques that are effective. We must hurry up and begin pulling our troops out. We must hurry up and pass the Energy Bill. We must hurry up and pass the Health Care Bill.

RALEIGH, NC -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is almost always diligent about saying "he or she" when discussing his potential running mate. But at a lively town hall meeting in the Tarheel State Tuesday evening, the senator -- who is expected to announce his vice presidential pick at the end of this week -- used a decidedly male pronoun. Asked what his plan is to utilize his vice president as President Bush utilized his, Obama said, "Let me tell you first what I won’t do. I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president, without knowing necessarily what...

devastatingly funny Kerry ad punctures windbag's illusion of fitness [POURQUOI JOHN KERRY EST DANGEREUX POUR L'AMÉRIQUE] (why America must vote "BUSH")     CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW Take a look at this ad -- which Bill O'Reilly featured on his show Thursday night! ClubforGrowth.net has teamed up with David Zucker (the director of such movie hits as Airplane! and Naked Gun) to produce what could be the most explosive, influential, and memorable TV ad of the campaign season. Not to mention the funniest. Go to site to view the ad Or view here:Quicktime - (Hi-Res ) | Real Player...

There have been other mistakes....in Cincinnati, Kerry gave an address on Iraq without ever really talking about Iraq....The speech had lost its moorings by the second page. So had the candidate....on September 6, Kerry told his audience in Canonsburg, West Virginia, this story: "Everybody told me, 'God, if you're coming to Canonsburg, you've got to find time to go to Toy's, and he'll take care of you.' [Toy's is a local restaurant.] I understand it's my kind of place, because you don't have to--you know, when they give you the menu, I'm always struggling: 'Ah, what do you want?' He...

Sen. Kerry: "You bet we might have!"

People say it shouldn’t be a beauty contest. Lawmakers such as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) dismiss the subject of presidential looks as merely a frivolous concern of the media, but party nominations and capturing the White House are not merely the stuff of dry debates on the issues. When you’re a man seeking the presidency, everything about you, including your masculinity, matters. In the 2000 presidential race, former Vice President Al Gore brought in feminist and image coach Naomi Wolf to work on his style and image. Out went his dark suits and red ties. Wolf dressed Gore in khaki...

Japan reiterated its call on the international community Wednesday for unity in dealing with Iraq, expressing regret at the differences among leading countries, but failed to say whether it would support the United States if it decided to attack Baghdad. ''Now is the time for the international community to adopt a consistent approach in dealing with Iraq,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said, adding the divisions give Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the ''wrong message.'' Fukuda, the top government spokesman, was referring to divisions among influential members of the U.N. Security Council and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over strategies...

In a year when the state Democratic Party needs all the help it can get, its natural allies, the public employee unions, appear uninterested at best and antagonistic at worst. "Our members are very unhappy," says Russell Okata, the veteran leader of the state's biggest union, the Hawaii Government Employees Association. Already, the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly have decided to take a hands-off approach in the primary election and withhold their support for any gubernatorial candidate until the general election. The HGEA has told members to vote for either Democrats Lt. Gov. Mazie...