Free Republic

With the passing last week of the 80th anniversary of the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (on August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (three days later), familiar questions once again arise about our having done so. These include whether it was absolutely necessary in order to bring an end to the war, and whether or not there was any alternative to the two bomb attacks? Addressing the second question first, an alternative option had been discussed. It involved providing the Japanese with a demonstration by dropping an atomic bomb on an uninhabited island. But such a...

In attacking numerous military targets in Iran on June 13, 2025 as part of its Operation Rising Lion, Israel made good on a 1981 policy announced by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin:‘We shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We will not allow any enemy to obtain weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us.’While we hear international criticism of Israel for the attack, long forgotten is that Tehran’s mullahs actually recognized this same need a year before the Israelis announced their doctrine.By 1976, Saddam Hussein had become the de facto leader of Iraq,...

President Donald Trump’s announcement he will withdraw U.S. forces from Syria because the Islamic State (ISIS) has largely been defeated accomplishes two things — neither of which is positive. First, it undermines the security of two of our most stalwart Middle East allies, Israel and the Kurds. Second, it rewards our enemies, of which there are more than we openly acknowledge. Clearly, enemies list beneficiaries include the Iran/Syria/Russia alliance and ISIS... Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war...