Free Republic

Republican lawmakers have launched an effort to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations, amid concern that the international humanitarian and human rights organization fails to promote American interests and align with President Donald Trump’s "America First" agenda. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced legislation Thursday called the Disengaging Entirely From the United Nations Debacle Act of 2025, which would terminate U.S. membership in the U.N. and its affiliated bodies, and funding to those groups. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is co-sponsoring the measure in the upper chamber. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is poised to introduce the measure in the House Friday,...

“I have wanted to share with you today the five axes on which Egypt’s vision to face current challenges is based to put our region on the road of sustainable and comprehensive stability,” the president said. Arab’s top issue The first axis affirms the importance of reaching a “fair, comprehensive and ultimate” solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution based on the relevant international resolutions, El-Sisi said. ... Democracy, human rights Second, El-Sisi affirmed the importance of building societies on the foundations of democracy, citizenship, equality, respect for human rights, renouncement of extremist ideologies and...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin (@GenBoykin). Venezuela is vulnerable. The White House in August imposed new economic sanctions on the country, and the oil glut caused by the coronavirus pandemic, meanwhile, is rendering Venezuela’s vast supply of recoverable oil near-worthless. “[N]o other country in the region will be as hard hit as Venezuela, which relies on oil sales for 85 percent of its government spending,” writes Andres Oppenheimer, a columnist for the Miami Herald. “Last year, Venezuela’s oil exports had already fallen to $9 billion, from $73 billion in 2011.”All these factors—U.S. sanctions on...

Robert McDonald, the new head of the VA, has announced his proposed changes/improvements to the current VA system. I've been in the VA system for a number of years here in Atlanta where there have been reports of poor care. I must say that, without exception, I have experienced very good and courteous care in the Atlanta facilities. The bulk of the problems appear to be in other facilities and, to his credit, McDonald – a West Point graduate and airborne vet himself – has dug down into the situation and concluded that his list of those who need to...

With the disintegration of the Soviet Empire and the Soviet Union, and Beijing’s abandonment of Maoism, anti-communism necessarily ceased to be the polestar of U.S. foreign policy. For many, our triumph fairly cried out for a bottom-up review of all the alliances created to fight that Cold War and a return to a policy of non-intervention in foreign quarrels where no vital U.S. interest was imperiled. This was dismissed as isolationism. Seeking some new cause to give meaning to their lives, our suddenly superfluous foreign policy elites settled upon a crusade for democracy as America’s new mission in the world....