Free Republic

The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was For some time now no navy or air force has posed a threat to the United States. Our only competition has been armies, whether conventional forces or guerrilla insurgencies. This will soon change. The Chinese navy is poised to push out into the Pacific—and when it does, it will very quickly encounter a U.S. Navy and Air Force unwilling to budge from the coastal shelf of the...

Canadians are being offered a new vision of a Fortress North America in which the continent is wrapped in a security perimeter from the Arctic all the way to the Guatemalan border. A trilateral commission yesterday unveiled a series of proposals which also urge Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to create a high-tech, biometric security system to speed passage of law-abiding travellers across borders that would ultimately diminish in importance, much as they have in the countries of the European Union. The commission calls for trilateral threat-intelligence centres and would jointly train law enforcement agents in the three countries. It...

Should the U.N. be lord of the oceans? Posted: February 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc. "Sovereignty. The issue is huge. The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N." So George W. Bush confided to friend Doug Wead before he declared his candidacy. And, twice, President Bush has acted to defend U.S. sovereignty against the encroachments of global government. He rejected both the International Criminal Court, which...

The United States and six members of the Organization of American States have signed new agreements on trade and the environment. The agreements are aimed at strengthening environmental protection and creating a Secretariat for Environmental Matters to help implement the environmental provisions of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The accords were signed in Washington D.C. Friday by senior representatives of the governments of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.

(from email received Friday 1/28/2005) Dear ______: As you may already know, AlwaysOn, in partnership with Speedera, will be bringing you live webcasts of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland all week long. Go to www.alwayson-network.com to see what's on now! Below is the schedule for the coming day's webcasts. All times are PST: 12:20am-1:00am | Special Message - Gerhard Schroeder 12:50am-2:15am | Is the Peace Process Poised for a Resurrection? 3:20am-5:00am | Addressing the Role of the United States in World Affairs 6:05am-7:30am | A View from the Hill on US Foreign Policy in Bush II 6:20am-8:00am |...

KERRY GRINCH You’re a flip-flop, Kerry Grinch; It’s “the wrong war and wrong time.” But you vote for the invasion While in protest you now chime, Kerry Grinch. You voted against funding and then for it, With logic sublime! You’re a waffler, Kerry Grinch; You would face Kim Jung alone And forget a coalition Yet its absence you bemoan Kerry Grinch. How can you enforce a treaty while he holds the throne? You’re a sly one, Kerry Grinch, You know you will need a Draft To fill your new two divisions Or did you just think us daft? Kerry Grinch....

"French Connection" John Kerry political cartoon.  May 16, 2004... Kerry’s obsession with internationalizationby Roger Wm. Hughes There continues to be a disturbing trend by Democrats to want to involve the French in the Iraq War. France -- the country, that provided a safe haven to the Ayatollah Khomeini... a country that has so socialized its economy that its continued economic decline is inevitable... a country that resents our hard work and what it calls the America's MacDonaldization of European culture. Robert Kagan in his book, Paradise and Power, points out the deep resentment by France and Germany towards America...

A growing faction of conservatives is voicing doubts about a prolonged United States military involvement in Iraq, putting hawkish neoconservatives on the defensive and posing questions for President Bush about the degree of support he can expect from his political base. The continuing violence and mounting casualties in Iraq have given new strength to the traditional conservative doubts about using American military power to remake other countries and about the potential for Western-style democracy without a Western cultural foundation. In in the eyes of many conservatives, the Iraqi resistance has discredited the more hawkish neoconservatives — a group closely identified...

The Bias Towards Brutality and Totalitarianism By Carroll Andrew Morse On February 29, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Haiti. Before Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled the country, supporters of foreign intervention disagreed about its proper goals. Senator John Kerry and a significant number of Congressional Democrats, for example, felt that it was appropriate to use military action to keep Aristide in power despite widespread and credible charges of anti-democratic intimidation and corruption. Other supporters of military action, led by the Bush administration and the government of France, saw no special value in protecting...

I recall that Albright has said within the last year that AMerica has to prepare for a time when it will be the most powerful nation in the world. I need the exact quote, as well as time and place. I have done a search on google and FR, but have had no luck. Can anyone help me find the exact quote? Thanks to all.

Finally, the Democrats have found a theme with which to criticize the administration in Iraq while supporting the continued occupation. It comes down to an increasingly popular term: "internationalization." Here are Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton's deployments of the new argument yesterday, and my comments. First, Dean. Here's his peroration: I hope the Administration will use Saddam's capture as an opportunity to move U.S. policy in a more effective direction. America's interests will be best served by acting with dispatch to work as partners with free Iraqis to help them build a stable, self-governing nation, not by prolonging our term...

One of Britain's most high-profile charities was ordered to end criticism of military action in Iraq by its powerful US wing to avoid jeopardising financial support from Washington and corporate donors, a Guardian investigation has discovered. Internal emails reveal how Save the Children UK came under enormous pressure after it accused coalition forces of breaching the Geneva convention by blocking humanitarian aid. Senior figures at Save the Children US, based in Westport, Connecticut, demanded the withdrawal of the criticism and an effective veto on any future statements blaming the invasion for the plight of Iraqi civilians suffering malnourishment and shortages...

'Rats' slur writer is facing Muslim race case By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris (Filed: 06/09/2003) An Italian author who wrote an attack on Muslims, calling their culture rotten and backward and saying "the sons of Allah are multiplying like rats", was accused of inciting racial hatred in Paris yesterday. Oriana Fallaci, 73, an Italian journalist now living in New York, was unable to attend the court hearing as she has cancer. She first published her polemic against Islam, titled The Rage and the Pride, in an Italian newspaper but such was its impact that it was turned into a...

Supreme Court internationalists Posted: August 8, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com As if it weren't bad enough that the U.S. Supreme Court majority pays little heed to the U.S. Constitution, now it is becoming clear five or six members of the court are being influenced by the constitutions and courts of foreign countries. Ruth Bader Ginsburg blew the court's cover in a speech to the American Constitution Society, explaining that her colleagues are looking beyond America's borders for guidance in handling cases on issues like the death penalty and homosexual rights. In a decision earlier this summer in...

It’s bad enough when judges legislate from the bench, but appealing to foreign courts for precedent to apply in our country is, in the minds of some, almost treasonous.  Yet an appeal to foreign courts – to share with a “wider civilization” – was part of the reasoning used by the United States Supreme Court in its majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas. In Lawrence, the court announced a new, fabricated constitutional right to engage in sodomy.  Its arguments were so questionable that the majority in Lawrence had to refer not just to the legal alchemy of Griswold v....

<p>NOTHING breeds success like success. The shockwaves of the American military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq have reverberated around the world. And despite the whining and complaining of the "Henny Penny the Sky Is Falling" crowd, America's straight-talking, hard-nosed internationalism is having a salutary effect on hot spots around the globe, especially in Asia.</p>

Washington -- Perhaps it is too early to mention the obvious. Yet as our special ops soldiers crawl through Saddam's hinterland, targeting his defenses, mapping out routes for our troops to overwhelm him, there is a lull in the war. It is not too early to review what the popinjays of "internationalism" have wrought. "Internationalism" is the nonce enthusiasm of the United Nations and lesser international bodies that presume to reign over the world in the Twenty-First Century, regulating lesser bodies (legally constituted governments) and providing "collective security" for all. As the bloody failure of "internationalism" in Bosnia signifies and...

Space Shuttle CrashFollowing the space shuttle crash, the Israeli press was so chocked full of condolences from Bush to Sharon and vice-versa, one would have thought that the tragedy was almost worth it, for it brought Israel and America closer - “a covenanat of blood has been formed between the two countries” is an expression often used. With Israeli and US flags lowered to half-mast, we heard leaders from both sides saying, “times such as these strengthen the Israeli and American peoples' common fate, identity and values, and shared vision”. PM Sharon added “it is at moments such as these,...

Virginia Panel Votes to Leave 'Child Support' Undefined September 16, 2002 By Roger F. Gay The Virginia Child Support Review Panel is tasked with assuring that use of the state's child support guideline results in appropriate awards. One might think this job impossible if the term "child support" is not defined. That is exactly what panel member Murray Steinberg thought. Mr. Steinberg has been trying since early June to have the panel agree on a definition of "child support." The child support guideline is a fixed formula used for determining the amount of child support that one parent must...

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT COMING INTO BEING; Senator Daniel Inouye Kills Anti-ICC Legislation A last-minute decision to drop legislative protection for U.S. military personnel against an International Criminal Court (ICC) continues to generate controversy on Capitol Hill. This has set the stage for the implementation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, with jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel. The ICC may become a reality on April 11, when the 60th country is expected to ratify the treaty. Legislation called the "American Servicemembers' Protection Act" had passed the House of Representatives by a 282 to 137 vote last May and the Senate...