Free Republic

Donald Rumsfeld's secret plan to defeat Saddam relies on special forces, a new high-tech weapon and a defense secretary involved in every detailDefense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld speaks to the media in front of a B-2 stealth bomber Nearly every day now, working from the stand-up desk in his spacious Pentagon E-Ring office, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pores over a secret document known only to a tight circle of U.S. officials: Deployment Order No. 177. Although it might sound like a one-pager that needs only a quick review, No. 177 is a series of documents, each 10 to 20 pages...

February 11, 2013 And Your Little Dog, Too By Deroy Murdock As Washington politicians aim to restrict the Second Amendment, they should look in the mirror. The time to control government’s guns is now. Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort in routine law enforcement. From food-safety cases to mundane financial matters, battle-ready public employees are turning America into the United States of SWAT.FBI agents and U.S. marshals understandably are well fortified, given their frequent run-ins with ruthless bad guys. However — as my old friend and fellow columnist Quin Hillyer notes — armed officers, if...

Why trimming military pensions irks this deficit-hawk veteran. With a $1.1 trillion budget wending its way through Congress and likely headed for President Obama’s desk, officials in Washington are no doubt patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Here’s who won’t be cheering the news: American veterans and military retirees and their families. Tucked away in this massive spending package is a provision that chops away at the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) raises for military retirees and family survivors, in order to save an estimated $6 billion over the next ten years. You could argue that I,...

This article is incredible in its dishonesty and distortion. In the pages of National Review Byron York, all the way back in February, demonstrated that Bush did his duty for the guard. He concluded that the case was closed. The Boston Globe has decided today that this is not the case, but in making this decision, they have completely distorted Dubya's guard record in a way that strikes me as being either unconscionably sloppy or unconscionably intentional. What follows is a point-by-point rebuttal of the key passages of the Globe's piece. My hat is off to the incomparable Byron York...

In the interest of the historical importance of things that happened on this forum last week and, most importantly, to try to provide and document an accurate record of exactly what happened here on the evening of September 8, 2004, and the following morning, I have compiled a listing of ALL of the postings that occurred on Free Republic concerning CBS and Dan Rather 60 Minutes show from 8:00 PM EDT on Thurdsay, September 8, 2004, up until about 9:00 AM EDT on the morning of Friday, September 9, 2004, when the rest of the internet "caught up." I am...

WASHINGTON AND JERUSALEM - President Bush seemed poised early this week to put Palestinian statehood on the fast track. But by announcing a new policy of retaking Palestinian-controlled land in response to acts of terrorism, Israel appears to be changing the timetable – if not the outcome – of the Bush administration's efforts. Taken after this week's devastating suicide bombing in Jerusalem, the Israeli policy might be seen as a natural outgrowth of a strategy set forth by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon since he took office in March 2001. But the announcement also throws a wrench in US plans to...

Have at him!

ACCORDING TO MEDIA reports, the Defense Department is considering canceling two supersonic jet fighters that are on the Pentagon's drawing board: the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. There is no doubt that even with the defense budget at historical highs, the Pentagon cannot afford the $1.5 trillion worth of weapons that the military services would like to purchase. However, although the Defense Department is correct in trying to slash the F/A-22, it is dead wrong in trying to save money by canceling the Joint Strike Fighter. The F/A-22 Raptor is the most unnecessary weapon system...

Under intense pressure from veterans’ groups, members of Congress are pledging to revisit a controversial provision of the weeks-old federal budget that would reduce pension payments for younger military retirees. The cuts to military pensions quickly emerged as the most contentious aspect of the two-year budget passed by Congress late last month. Since then, lawmakers have introduced a slew of proposals to reduce or reverse cuts that outraged veterans’ groups and active duty military personnel. “If they want to deter people from making the military their career, they are on the right track,” said Thomas Lussier, public relations officer for...

As a result of the fall of Ramadi and other Sunni areas in Iraq to the forces of ISIS, many critics are blaming President Obama for “losing Iraq.” According to his critics, for example, people like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and columnist Charles Krauthammer, if Obama had only left thousands of American troops in Iraq after 2011, there would be no ISIS or Iranian-dominated Shiite militias in Iraq. The Iraqi military would be a well-trained, well-disciplined, and well-equipped fighting force, willing and able to defend their country. This view, though widely-shared by the more hawkish conservatives, is an exercise in...

Under December’s budget deal, working-age military retirees — some of whom retire with pensions in their 40s after 20 years of service — would see those pensions grow at a slower pace. Their annual cost-of-living adjustments would be pegged to the rate of inflation minus 1 percentage point. But once they turned 62, they’d go back to receiving cost-of-living adjustments pegged to the full rate of inflation. The provision wouldn’t kick in until late next year, a delay Ryan says was designed to allow the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to consider alternative proposals for reining in the military’s...

Facing skepticism about his foreign policy expertise, Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he speaks to "many, many, many people" who provide him with advice on the subject. But the sole person Sanders cited by name told POLITICO that he's spoken to Sanders only one time recently. "I was asked to go over and speak with him just once, which I did," said Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Korb said the wide-ranging conversation "probably" occurred in December. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-korb-military-adviser-218482#ixzz3yubzyYcS

WASHINGTON - For a president who was supposed to be resolute and unmovable when it came to his pursuit of foreign policy, George W. Bush has proved to be surprisingly flexible – not only in the immediate aftermath of Sept 11, but also as new situations continue to crop up. The reason is simple: Mr. Bush has decided that the battle against terrorism is the raison d'être of his administration. That means that a whole host of issues – such as perennially tenuous relations with Iran and the amount earmarked for foreign aid – are handled in a manner thought...

I URGE you all to watch this hearing on cspan-2. Lawerence Korb, the ever weak and wobbly former Reagan's DOD official (I don't know how he could be the same then as he is now and measure up to Reagan's strength of character), AND Gen. Jack Keane (ret.) in hearing. Gen. Keane is hitting it out of the park .. Korb said we pulled troops out of Viet Nam to preserve the military, and Keane was unabashed in his contempt for those remarks and that opinion. Keane is praising the courage, command structure, morale and re-enlistment (in huge numbers) of...