Free Republic

TEHRAN/ANKARA: Iran has inflicted more “extensive” damage to United States bases and equipment in the Middle East since the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing sources. The report said that the damages from Iran’s retaliatory strikes against US military bases in seven Middle Eastern countries were “far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair”. Iran has hit dozens of targets, including warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, runways, high-end radar systems and dozens of aircraft, the report said. It added...

The U.S. military recently published photos of Marines in a unit headed to the Middle East equipped with an advanced optic designed to help them shoot down small drones. The April 4 photos show members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, using a smart scope optic mounted on their M4 carbines as part of training against small drones. Roughly 2,500 Marines in the unit are currently embarked on the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March to support operations in the Middle East. When the photos were taken, the Marines were aboard a ship in the Pacific...

As the United States turns its focus away from Asia and dials in on the Middle East, China is reportedly ramping up its deployment of naval power on the high seas. The Chinese navy and coast guard have deployed 100 vessels in the East and South China Seas, according to information that two Taiwanese security officials told Reuters. China’s presence is highly heightened when compared with the usual strength in the theater of about 50-60 ships, according to a statement that one official provided to Reuters. However, these ships are nowhere to be seen on the map. They are all...

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, My heart is heavy as I look toward Lebanon – a land long marked by faith, suffering, and perseverance. Lebanon is not merely another nation in conflict. It is home to one of the oldest and largest Christian populations in the Middle East, where the name of Jesus Christ has been professed continuously since the earliest centuries of the Church. In that sacred land stands the shrine of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a humble monk whose life of prayer, penance, and Eucharistic devotion has borne extraordinary fruit. Known as the “miracle monk of Lebanon,”...

As we cross the one month mark of the Israeli-American war on Iran, a sufficient corpus of data is emerging to contemplate the kinetic dynamics of the conflict. This is a very strange war. It is not merely the fact that the roster of combatants and associated parties - Netanyahu, President Trump, Lindsay “Holden Bloodfeast” Graham - comprise the most polarizing figures in world politics today. As if to punctuate this fact, I fully anticipate angry comments berating me for using a sanitized and emotionally titrated word like “polarizing.” But we digress. Far more interesting than endless apoplexy over Israel...

Imagine sitting down for dinner in first-century Galilee without a fork or a fast-food burger in sight. You would likely be dipping crusty barley bread into a bowl of savory lentil stew. (Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew...) Life was much slower then, revolving around the seasons and the harvest for basic survival. Food was fuel, but it was also the center of community and deep religious celebration. Sharing a meal meant sharing your life with neighbors and family members in a very real way. Let’s look at what was actually on the menu for...

A huge reason why there's this rift on the Right that didn't exist a year ago is because Neocons are not team players. They operate as political parasites, using our candidates and elected officials for their own ends without ever reciprocating anything in return. This isn't how stable political coalitions work. The entire point is that you join forces with people you may not agree with 100% of the time, but you still fight for their priorities so they will fight for yours. But Neocons like to pretend they're above all of that. They're a single-issue constituency. They will bounce...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran! Apr 07, 2026, 8:06 AM

The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.....

Hours before the Passover holiday on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir issued an unusual letter to government officials, warning of a growing manpower crisis and calling on lawmakers to “fulfill your responsibility” by advancing urgent legislation to support both regular and reserve soldiers. “The central challenge we face in the current campaign is the expansion of IDF missions,” Zamir wrote, pointing to the need to defend border communities while proactively eliminating threats. He stressed that the military must be able to operate with “initiative and offensiveness” across multiple fronts. Zamir warned that a decision to shorten mandatory...

The IDF could soon collapse if there is no solution to the shortage of manpower, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir warned in remarks during a security cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. “I am raising 10 red flags before the IDF collapses into itself,” Zamir said during the cabinet meeting, The Jerusalem Post confirmed. IDF sources also told the Post that there is tremendous concern due to the severe manpower shortage, especially amid the ongoing war. Even in peacetime, Israel would still need more soldiers – not fewer – on the border in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West...

Dubai chocolate has become one of the most talked-about food phenomena on social media. Behind this ultra-indulgent bar lies a recent history, rooted in Middle Eastern culinary tradition and propelled to fame at lightning speed by TikTok. Dubai Chocolate was created in 2021 by Fix Dessert Chocolatier, a boutique based in Dubai. Its creator, Sarah Hamouda, an engineer of British-Egyptian origin, teamed up with chef Nouel Catis Omamalin with a simple but bold idea: to transform the experience of knafeh, an iconic Middle Eastern dessert made with kadaif [editor’s note: fresh angel hair], cheese, butter, and pistachios or walnuts, topped...

Throughout Operation Roaring Lion, the Israeli Air Force had continuously targeted the firepower arrays of the Iranian terror regime, and particularly the ballistic missile array across Iran. The Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, conducted five strikes within seconds on several infrastructure sites located within a large-scale ballistic missiles array site in western Iran. During the strikes, the IDF eliminated numerous operatives of the ballistic missiles array as they operated within the site to advance and carry out terror attacks against the State of Israel and additional countries in the Middle East. The IDF will continue to deepen...

It’s become practically normalized these days that ignorant influencers and populist politicians abroad will regularly proclaim that Israel dragged America into the war with Iran; that the Islamic Republic didn’t pose any “imminent threat” to the US; that the war is illegal. These armchair analysts claim that US President Donald Trump has no idea what he’s doing – it’s all to cement his reputation as an international bully – and that the war will bring nothing but higher gas prices and soaring inflation to the US, all to support another country, Israel, which is pulling the strings. What these pundits...

“I personally think we should have crushed their ballistic & nuke capes (capabilities) , but Trump has a plan, he has definitely earned the confidence of any clear eyed observer,” Joe Kent wrote in 2020.“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as director of the National Counterrorism Center,” Joe Kent, a former registered Democrat who had once voted for Bernie Sanders, announced on Tuesday. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran” which “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from...

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones A senior Iranian lawmaker warned Saturday that Ukraine could become a “legitimate target” for Iran, accusing Kyiv of assisting Israel during the ongoing conflict. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones. “By providing support to the Israeli regime with drones, the collapsing Ukraine has in fact become...

Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of...

Joel Rosenberg recently released a video in which he argued that the current war in Iran is a fulfillment of a Bible prophecy contained in Jeremiah 29. This is not a new discovery. In 2014, Bill Salus published a book in which he suggested that a military attack on Elam might prove to be one of the end-time wars (Nuclear Showdown in Iran: Revealing the Ancient Prophecy of Elam, 2014). Salus is what I call an “eschatological sleuth.” He searches the Scriptures for passages that have been overlooked or forgotten, which he believes relate to the end-times. He was the...

Locals: ‘First time we’ve seen anything like this since the attacks started’ Check this wild footage from Karaj moments ago !

Donald Trump’s apparent interest in regime change in Iran is a welcome development. The opening days of the US-Israeli military campaign against the ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”) have proceeded beyond expectations, although harder days undoubtedly lie ahead. The Pentagon’s planning and professionalism are on full display. By contrast, the political side of this politico-military assault on the Tehran regime is hurting.