Free Republic

The modern international order rests on a foundational promise: states must resolve disputes peacefully, and force may be used only as a last resort and only within the bounds of law. The US helped build this system after World War II, embedding these principles in the UN Charter and in its own Constitution. Yet the US military operations in Venezuela in January 2026 and in Iran on February 28, 2026 represent a sharp break from these commitments. Both actions were undertaken without United Nations authorization and without congressional approval, raising profound questions about legality, constitutional governance, and the erosion of...

NOW - Lindsey Graham pleads with Trump to join the Israeli military fighting in Lebanon

***Marco Rubio insisted Tuesday that he was misunderstood one day prior when he said the US attacked Iran on Saturday because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” that would “precipitate an attack against American forces.” Rubio walked back his prior statements after President Trump flatly denied that Israel chose the timing of the attack — maintaining in an Oval Office pool spray hours earlier, as he had in interviews, that he chose to attack after unsuccessful US-Iran talks Thursday in Geneva. “This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a...

President Trump said late Monday the U.S. has “virtually unlimited” munitions to fight wars “forever,” just days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes in Iran. “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!),” he continued. “At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where...

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump denies that Israel dragged the US into war with Iran, insisting that if anything, the opposite could be true and that he felt Iran was going to attack first. Trump was asked by a reporter in the Oval Office, “Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” “No, I might have forced their hands. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first,” Trump claims in response, during...

On the third day of the new war with Iran, and after years of building a political reputation grounded in opposition to foreign intervention, Vice President JD Vance broke his silence: He supports the strikes and believes the latest adventure abroad is not only prudent but consistent with his and President Trump’s promises not to risk American lives for regime change.The difference between this conflict and the Global War on Terror, Vance told Jesse Watters of Fox News, was that Trump “is not going to let his country go to war unless there is a clearly defined objective.” The stated...

The US launched preemptive strikes against Iran after learning Israel was about to attack — and American troops in the region faced an imminent threat of retaliation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday. Rubio made the revelation on Capitol Hill, where he briefed a small group of congressional leaders on the joint US-Israel offensive.'There absolutely was an imminent threat,' Rubio stated. 'And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a...

Erik Prince on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast expresses confusion about President Trump's strategy for intervening in Iran: STEVE BANNON: It seems like it’s not as intense as the strike that ended the 12-day war, but spectacular results, correct? I mean, they took out the Ayatollah and his top 40 guys — what, having a picnic lunch in the afternoon or gathering? The intelligence was pretty special, the fact that they took the Ayatollah and 40 of his top guys out, sir. ERIK PRINCE: Look, Steve, I’m not happy about the whole thing. I don’t think this was in...

Air strikes continue across the region on Tuesday as Iran shows no signs of backing down after the US and Israel launched an attack at the weekend that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Follow our live blog. The Iran war has entered its fourth day, a campaign that US President Donald Trump said Monday would take several weeks. Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.” Meanwhile, Tehran has continued its attacks across the region, striking Israel and a variety of targets inside Gulf states, including the...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday. Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday. The poll was conducted during the strikes on Iran by the U.S....

In a Charlie Kirk Show segment from June 17, 2025, Kirk criticized Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, for pushing for regime change earlier that month in the buildup to the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

At least 85 people, almost all of them young girls, have been killed in an air strike on a primary school in southern Iran, the Iranian judiciary said. The attack on Saturday morning hit Shajareh Tayyebeh schoolin the city of Minab, in Hormozgan province, as the United States and Israel began launching strikes on targets across Iran.The victims were between seven and 12 years old, according to Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies. A staff member at the Minab school, who asked not to be named, told Middle East Eye she remains in shock at the intensity of the attack....

Last night on his show, Greg Kelly stated he has heard from numerous people in the know, that we will attack Iran today after the close of the stock market. We were also hearing last night that the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier would be able to reach targets within a few more hours. This was the only specific prediction I've heard. I do think Trump is going to strike and that he's going to try and nudge that country toward regime change. Another report said the Iranian government cannot agree to give up their uranium enrichment because it would conflict...

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t...

@MJTruthUltra Tucker Carlson calls for Mark Levin to be Immediately FIRED from Fox News for saying Iran currently has Nuclear Tipped ICBM’s pointed at the United Staes “Iran doesn’t have nuclear tipped ICBM’s aimed at the United States. That is a lie. That is a provable lie. Why is he saying that? He hopes to whip his listening into such a frenzy of fear and rage..”

On Tuesday night, President Trump made his case for attacking Iran. #Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves if an attack on Iran is prudent or desirable.#In his address, Trump argued that Iran was in the process of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to hit the United States. This assertion is farcical and risible. Iran simply has no ability to hit the United States, and even if it did, the doctrine of classical deterrence would come into play. The United States and the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear-armed ICBMs targeted at each other for decades yet never engaged in direct conflict....

"Cuban border guards did what they had to do in this situation," Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Thursday morning, according to the Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti. In a statement on Wednesday night, the interior ministry said the 10 people aboard the speedboat were "Cuban residents of the United States," who were allegedly armed with weapons and "intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes." Those on board the U.S-registered speedboat, which had been reported stolen in Florida, allegedly opened fire on Cuban border guard troops as they approached the boat...

Hungary will deploy soldiers and equipment to protect key energy infrastructure amid what Prime Minister Viktor Orban described as a potential Ukrainian threat, he said on Feb. 25, escalating tensions tied to disrupted Russian oil transit....

India will likely continue buying Russian oil as the U.S. Supreme Court's verdict outlawing President Donald Trump's import tariffs has constrained his trade policy options, analysts said. "I do expect that India will maintain a healthy relationship with Russia, including on energy," Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft told CNBC's Inside India. He added that India could reduce its Russian oil purchases but is unlikely to stop completely. According to energy data provider Kpler, India has imported 1.16 million barrel per day (mbd) of Russian oil so far in February, lower...

Many Americans were skeptical of Elon Musk’s grandiose claims that DOGE would take a “chainsaw” to federal spending. One “tax nerd” was so skeptical he decided to “bet his life savings” on Musk’s promises being a flop — and it paid off big time, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Musk has seen his approval rating descend as he has taken a more publicly active role politically, plus ongoing criticism and litigation over his management of his social media platform X and support for far-right politics in Europe. He jumped into his work with the Department of...