Free Republic

Marie Le Pen was just banned from running for president of France for five years. That’s more like forever. Le Pen is deemed a criminal and sentenced to wear an electronic tag for a couple years. A French court claims she embezzled. But why would we believe a French court any more than we believe a Manhattan or D.C. district court? Trump’s been through those wringers. Macron and his mates did to Le Pen what Romanian elites did to Calin Georgescu, the populist candidate for president there. Reportedly, he was the frontrunner. If you smell a rat, you’re right. French...

Do you want a future in which Canada defects to the EU, Russia rules the Arctic and China runs Latin America? That’s the default outcome of non-action. Our inbound president Donald Trump generates torrents of diplomatic angst with statements about Canada being America’s “51st state,” the national security logic of buying Greenland from allied Denmark, and snatching back the Panama Canal to counter China’s growing economic footprint throughout our hemisphere. Where is all this expansionist energy coming from? How did Trump’s America First isolationism suddenly morph into an Americas First mergers and acquisition (M&A) strategy? Let’s be clear on who...

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...

WITH a controversial Israeli attack in the news, I have thought back to another controversial Israeli attack, one that took place 29 years ago today: the strike on the Osirak nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq. The daring, risky bombing dealt a fatal blow to Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. I was then President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser, after having been his chief foreign policy adviser for several years. Sunday afternoon, I was on my back porch in Arlington, Va., wading through...my perpetually mounting paperwork. My progress was interrupted..the duty officer was requesting that I go to...

Sirens sound across Israel's north, south, Jerusalem and West Bank ■ IDF: Over 200 missiles, drones launched from Iran, most intercepted; army base in southern Israel sustained minor damage ■ U.S., U.K. and Jordan reportedly intercept drones ■ IDF deploys GPS jamming ■ Israeli war, security cabinets convened ■ Israel intensifies emergency guidelines, shuts down schools and large gatherings U.S. Embassy in Israel directs U.S. government employees to take shelter until further notice Israeli cabinet members authorize Netanyahu, Gallant and Gantz to make decisions on response to Iran's attack IDF: Residents of northern Golan, Nevatim, Dimona, Beer Sheva, Eilat no...

Roosevelt, argues Arnold Beichman, misread Stalin—and proved naive about communism itself.... Professor Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who has argued that the 1989 counter-revolution in Central Europe vindicates President Roosevelt’s wartime diplomacy,... However, I argue that, from the time he took office in 1933, FDR ignored informed assessments from within the State Department of the nature of Soviet diplomacy and that, consequently, the peoples of Central Europe for some four decades paid the price.... In the early years after the Bolshevik revolution, some U.S. diplomats who had begun to specialize in Soviet affairs believed that we should have as few dealings with...

Currently, Iran has a uranium stockpile to create 8 to ten nuclear bombs. But thanks to this nuclear deal, Iran must reduce its stockpile of uranium by 98%, and will keep its level of uranium enrichment at 3.67% — significantly below the enrichment level needed to create a bomb. On January 16, 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful. Before this agreement, Iran's breakout time -- or the time it would have taken for Iran to gather enough...

In an alarming development, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the former head of Iran's nuclear agency has implied in remarks broadcast on Monday that Iran has everything it needs for an A-bomb. In a televised interview, Salehi, who was also foreign minister (2010-2013), was asked if Iran has achieved the capability of developing a nuclear bomb. Avoiding a direct answer he stated, "We have [crossed] all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology. Here's an example: Imagine what a car needs; it needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, a gearbox. You're asking if we've made the gearbox, I say yes. Have...

In 65 years since the first satellite was launched, mankind has evolved from having no presence in outer space to developing a dependence on space assets to power the global economy, support military operations, and further innovation. In a rapidly digitizing world that is reliant on digital infrastructure, space systems are vital to governments, businesses, and our everyday lives. Space-based assets and data play critical roles in human and national security, touching everything from communication and intelligence to navigation, weather forecasting, monitoring climate change, and disaster mitigation. As governments and private actors seek to capitalize on the strategic and commercial...

During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of tragic losses in World War I contributed to pushing American public opinion and policy toward isolationism. Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America. The leaders of the isolationist movement drew upon history to bolster their position. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington had advocated non-involvement in European wars and politics. For much of...

America’s antagonists may not be formally allied, but they are aligned in a critical area — the Eurasian heartland — and in critical ways. An overstretched US cannot react to one problem without considering the impact on its ability to deal with others. The demands on American statecraft will be severe, as Washington confronts an array of problems it can’t easily walk away from and certainly can’t afford to see escalate all at once. In some ways, America’s predicament resembles the period before World War II. Leave aside that no US rival has committed aggression or atrocity on the scale...

One of Beijing's enduring hobbies is accusing Washington of violating or abusing international law. This selective outrage is justifiably ignored, given China’s unwillingness to abide by international law and disregard for U.N. arbitration concerning demarcation in the South China Sea. “International law with Chinese characteristics” was easily mocked and ignored when American deterrence and international safeguards stymied Beijing’s ambitions. Unfortunately, that security architecture is unraveling. In 2009, China began to make expansive claims vis-à-vis the South China Sea when it unveiled its infamous nine-dash line, which claimed vast swathes of maritime territory. In 2016, the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration...

Key Takeaways: Iran in the Region: An Israeli airstrike targeted a building directly adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing senior IRGC Quds Force commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and some of his top subordinates. Israel targeted Zahedi as part of an air campaign that it has conducted to disrupt the Iranian transfer of military materiel to its proxies and partners in Lebanon and Syria. Iran and its Axis of Resistance may attack US and/or Israeli targets in the coming weeks in retaliation for the killing of Zahedi. Northern Gaza Strip: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded a...

Iran is seeking to create “strategic depth” in the Mediterranean Sea, Iranian military adviser Yahya Safavi said in a recent speech. This appears to admit Tehran’s larger ambitions in the region.Iran has already taken over swaths of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, using proxies, and it has operationalized the Houthis in Yemen to attack ships in the Red Sea. Tehran also backs Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. It now appears to have even larger ambitions.Safavi is a former commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He now works as a military adviser to the Iranian regime and has an academic role...

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...

I know many of you/ us don't want the United States involved in a war over Ukraine. I agree, though I believe there would be no invasion of Ukraine if Donald Trump were president. I also love Tucker Carlson, he's the most worthwhile host on Fox. However, I challenge anyone to justify the fanciful version of facts Tucker Carlson just put on with the help of Tulsi Gabbard. The clear news today is that Joe Biden, for at least the second time, unequivocally announced that a Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot and will not be militarily opposed by the United...

I’ve been rather withdrawn from macro scale happenings in the Anglosphere the last few months. Tending my own garden, so to speak. Each time I check the headlines, I see the NWO noose has tightened around our collective necks a little more. It’s amazing that most people scuttle about without a wit as to what’s happening all around them, and the seismic ramifications totalitarianism will have on their lives and the lives of their children (for those who even have any) as the American government is systematically destroyed in a similar fashion to the way engineering experts say was the...

A BBC journalist, who attempted to film the crisis, was stopped and forced by soldiers to delete footage of a protest outside a supermarket as desperate Venezuelans waited for food. Baying crowds shouted “We want to buy stuff!” as they grouped outside the store in the country’s capital, Caracas. BBC journalist Vladimir Hernandez reports that many people approached him to say they had queued forIn the short clip, the crew are warned by a demonstrator that they have been spotted by members of the Venezuelan army. They are soon surrounded by soldiers as the crowd screams: “Let them film!” Soldiers...

The next president will take office as this year’s $544 billion deficit pushes up the U. S. national debt to nearly $20 trillion. Scary, but mere chicken feed compared to the way more than one hundred trillion bucks in unfunded liabilities has already been racked up by our entitlement state. And, on top of that, add our outrageous world policeman fees. The Washington Post reports that, “thanks to various treaties and deals set up since 1945, the U.S. government might be legally obligated to defend countries containing 25 percent of the world’s population.” And boy, has America, World Policeman, been active! The...

If you want to know why we have a $19 trillion national debt and a fiscal structure that will take that already staggering figure to $35 trillion and 140% of GDP within a decade, just consider the latest campaign fracas. That is, the shrieks of disbelief in response to Donald Trump’s sensible suggestion that the Europeans pay for their own defense. The fact is, NATO has been an obsolete waste for 25 years. Yet the denizens of the Imperial City cannot even seem to grasp that the 4 million Red Army is no more; and that the Soviet Empire, which...