Free Republic

As someone who values liberty and limited government, I’ve always been skeptical of unchecked federal power – especially when it comes to matters of war and peace. The Founders warned us about the dangers of standing armies and entangling alliances, and history has shown time and again the perils of a trigger-happy foreign policy.Yet for decades now, the American people have been fed a steady diet of interventionism from the Washington establishment. We’re told that the United States must be the world’s policeman – that we have a moral obligation to spread democracy at the point of a gun, and...

The venerable survey company found that 62% of registered Republicans said the year-old invasion by Moscow “represents a critical threat to US vital interests” — the highest proportion of any political affiliation, as just 58% of Democrats and 51% of independents agreed with the statement...The poll released Monday found just 9% of Republicans said the Russia-Ukraine war was “not an important threat at all” to American interests,...

A Russian defeat in Ukraine makes America safer.In April 1941 Germany had conquered all of Europe except England, while its Axis partner Japan had conquered most of Southeast Asia. At this historical moment, the Gallup Company took a poll of Americans on this question: Should America – until then a non-combatant – get involved in the war. 81% of Americans said no. But all that changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 in that same year. If the United States had not entered World War II, we would have faced a world united under Nazi rule ready...

A recent Foreign Affairs essay predictably gives the public a false binary choice, blames the current administration, and defends the foreign policy establishment. Who do you think is responsible for the current coronavirus foreign influences fiasco? If you ask the Washington foreign policy establishment, the answer is evident. It is President Trump’s disdain for “the foreign policy establishment” that has led to this current crisis.This is their same answer for every problem humanity has faced since 2016. If only we listened to the establishment! If only they learned their lesson in 2016. Apparently not, if you go by the Foreign...

Former President George W. Bush, who led the United States into war across the Middle East, attacked President Trump on Wednesday night, saying U.S. intervention is necessary “for the sake of peace” around the globe. During a panel alongside former President Bill Clinton at the Nir School of the Heart, Bush laid into Trump for his recent decision to withdraw up to 1,000 American troops from northeast Syria — fulfilling his longheld campaign promise to bring troops home after more than a decade of war. “An isolationist United States is destabilizing around the world,” Bush said, according to the Washington...

Donald Trump puts Australia on North Korean rocket alert SHARRI MARKSON, National Political Editor, The Daily Telegraph April 10, 2017 11:00pm AUSTRALIA and its allies have been put on standby for the possibility of the United States shooting down test rockets launched by North Korea. Intelligence sources told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea may launch ballistic missile test flights around the birthday of Kim II-sung, the founder of the rogue nation, on April 15 or even sooner. The United States, which has a fleet headed to the Korean Peninsula, is understood to have notified Australia that it is fully...

The U.S. military has requested that the White House grant it more freedom in its approach to fighting a terror group that has been wreaking havoc in North Africa in recent years, Military.com reported. Aggressions by the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia could erupt into an all-out war, but the head of U.S. Africa Command was looking for ways to avoid turning the country into a "free-fire zone," he said Friday. Specifically, Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser was looking for "a little bit more flexibility" to "process targets in a more rapid fashion," he told reporters at the Pentagon. That "flexibility"...

In October 2011, the Obama Administration ordered 100 U.S. special operations troops to deploy to central Africa to help African and U.N. forces capture Joseph Kony, the psychopathic commander of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army. Kony is an evil man. Note the present tense: is, not was. In the late 1980s, Kony took control of a movement whose goals linked the Acholi tribe's demands for autonomy in northern Uganda with a promise to govern Uganda according to the Ten Commandments. But Joseph Kony lived by a different testament. In 2005, the International Criminal Court indicted him on charges of...

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday that he still believes the only real solution for Iran is “regime change.” “The only longterm solution is regime change in Tehran,” said Bolton. “The ayatollahs are the principal threat to international peace and security and the Middle East.” Bolton continued, “Their ouster won’t bring sweetness and light to the region, that’s for sure, but it will eliminate the principal threat.” “I think the people of Iran would long for a new regime. I think we saw that in the summer of 2009 with...

Making the rounds right now is an exchange that I certainly hope is authentic, between the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and ranchers Larry and Amanda Anderson. It seems the Oregon bureaucrats want permission to survey the AndersonsÂ’ ranch land for purposes of tracking species decline.... ....here is the AndersonsÂ’ splendid reply... Thank you for your inquiry regarding accessing our property to survey for the yellow-legged frog. We may be able to help you out with this matter. We have divided our 2.26 acres into 75 equal survey units with a draw tag for each unit. Application fees are...

Interventionism, Allegedly a Middle-of-the-Road Policy A second group seems to be less radical. They reject socialism no less than capitalism. They recommend a third system, which, as they say, is as far from capitalism as it is from socialism, which as a third system of society's economic organization, stands midway between the two other systems, and while retaining the advantages of both, avoids the disadvantages inherent in each. This third system is known as the system of interventionism. In the terminology of American politics it is often referred to as the middle-of-the-road policy. What makes this third system popular with...

A court decision upholding Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction on sodomy charges raises “serious concerns about rule of law and the fairness of the judicial system in Malaysia,” the White House said Tuesday. The relatively rare public rebuke over a foreign criminal conviction came despite warming relations between the U.S. and the Malaysian government. President Obama visited the country last year, the first sitting president to do so in nearly half a century.

The shot that changed the world rang out on a sunny summer's morning in Southeastern Europe. No one knew then that the assassin's bullet would spell the death not just of an Austrian aristocrat but the entire global order, with four empires and millions of lives lost in a conflict on a scale never before seen.. Exactly 100 years ago Saturday, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his wife, Sophie, were shot at close range by a young Serbian nationalist on the streets of Sarajevo. The assassination set off a chain reaction that, barely a...

As President Obama listens to assessments of his foreign policy these days, he grows deeply frustrated. Syria? Ukraine? Afghanistan? What more do his critics want him to do? Get into another war? Keep fighting one that has already become America’s longest? After more than five years in office, Mr. Obama has become increasingly convinced that while the United States must play a vital role beyond its borders, it should avoid getting dragged into the quicksand of international crises that have trapped some of his predecessors. It is time for an end to what he called “a long season of war.”...

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...

In this difficult hour of serious trouble on our Western borders, I would like to address the American people in order to help you understand better the positions of our Russian patriots which are shared by the majority of our society. Difference Between the two Meanings of Being American (In the Russian View) 1. We distinguish between two different things: the American people and the American political elite. We sincerely love the first and we profoundly hate the second. 2. The American people has its own traditions, habits, values, ideals, options and beliefs that are their own. These grant to...

Make no mistake: Eric Cantor sides with the strong-on-defense wing of the GOP. In a Presidents Day speech prepared for delivery at the Virginia Military Institute, the House majority leader offers a full-throated rebuke of the “isolationist sentiment” he says caused the United States to hesitate to enter World War II and again threatens to unleash global horrors. The speech is aimed at President Barack Obama, accusing him of bungling just about every foreign policy challenge he has faced as commander in chief, from Syria’s civil war to the attempt to reset relations with Russia. “America’s friends worry we have...

The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is spearheading a return to the non-interventionist policies of Robert Taft of the 20s to the early 50s. Taft was defeated at the 1952 Republican National Convention for the nomination by Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is telling that Barry Goldwater attended that convention as an Eisenhower, not a Taft delegate. The neo-non-interventionists are destined for far more success in the Republican Party than any economic libertarian will ever find in the Democratic Party. As usual, history is instructive. Our Wars of 1812, Mexican-American and Spanish-American were strictly imperialistic. Our entry into WWI was engineered by...

One troubling aspect of our near-war with Syria is the apparent zeal both political parties have for military action abroad. In fact, no sooner had we dodged the proverbial bullet in Damascus then America’s bipartisan saber-rattlers recalibrated their sites on the big prize, Tehran. Historically speaking, it’s really no surprise that Wilsonian internationalists like John Kerry gravitate toward government intervention. After all, that’s exactly what liberals do at home. What’s harder to explain is why conservative policy has become so hawkish given Republican Party tradition throughout the 20th century.

ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Luis Martinez report: Two days ago President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA. The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries. The president made this announcement in a letter...