Free Republic

Late Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported, 51 State Department officials signed a statement condemning U.S. policy in Syria in which they repeatedly call for “targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State.” “In other words,” as Zero Hedge summarized, “over 50 top ‘diplomats’ are urging to eliminate [Syrian Pres. Bashar al] Assad in order to ‘defeat ISIS’, the same ISIS which top US ‘diplomats’ had unleashed previously in order to … eliminate Assad.” This gordian knot created by United States foreign policy — and intensified by that...

American and Russian fighter jets had a tense showdown in the skies above Syria as the Russians dropped bombs on U.S.-backed rebels. U.S. and Russian fighter jets bloodlessly tangled in the air over Syria on June 16 as the American pilots tried and failed to stop the Russians from bombing U.S.-backed rebels in southern Syria near the border with Jordan. The aerial close encounter underscores just how chaotic Syria’s skies have become as Russia and the U.S.-led coalition work at cross-purposes, each dropping bombs in support of separate factions in the five-year-old civil war. The near-clash also highlights the escalating...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signaled his intention to establish a Russian military air base in neighboring Belarus—a move sure to unnerve Poland and the Baltic nations. Belarus has made clear it would not welcome a Russian base, but the former Soviet republic remains dependent on Moscow for credit and energy. […] Belarus is a desirable location for Russia because it borders Ukraine and three members of the European Union and NATO: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. …

The U.S. military must rebuild in Europe to face a more aggressive Russia, whose advanced submarines, weapons systems and geographic advantage have the U.S. “playing zone defense,” the top U.S. commander in Europe said Thursday. “We have about 20 years of a different paradigm to correct,” Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Breedlove, who has led EUCOM during the command’s biggest transformation in a generation, said he did not foresee a need to return to a Cold War-style military posture. But the era of trying to make a partner...

Twenty-eight people were killed and dozens wounded in Turkey's capital Ankara on Wednesday when a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and other government buildings. The Turkish military condemned what it described as a "contemptible and dastardly" attack on the buses as they waited at traffic lights in the administrative heart of the city. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said 28 people including soldiers and civilians had been killed and 61 wounded in the blast, which took place near a busy intersection less than 500 metres from parliament during the evening...

On a glacier-filled island with fjords and elephant seals, Russia has built Antarctica’s first Orthodox church on a hill overlooking its research base, transporting the logs all the way from Siberia. Less than an hour away by snowmobile, Chinese laborers have updated the Great Wall Station, a linchpin in China’s plan to operate five bases on Antarctica, complete with an indoor badminton court, domes to protect satellite stations and sleeping quarters for 150 people. Not to be outdone, India’s futuristic new Bharathi base, built on stilts using 134 interlocking shipping containers, resembles a spaceship. Turkey and Iran have announced plans...

<p>Turkey says the Kurds are allied with the butcher of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad — the man whose power Russia fights to preserve.</p> <p>The Turks are angry with us for supporting the Kurds, but it’s Russia’s air bombardments that keep them awake at night. Putin, meanwhile, won’t easily forget that Turkey shot down a Russian plane earlier this winter, and now tells pilots not to await orders when they encounter suspicious aircraft near the Syrian-Turkish border.</p>

MOSCOW: The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, visited Moscow Tuesday for talks with the speaker of the lower house that were closed to press. Le Pen previously met the speaker Sergei Naryshkin, Russia's fourth most important official and a member of the ruling United Russia party, in April last year. Le Pen's party in November came under fire for taking out a 9 million euro loan with a Russian bank. Russia has sought to cosy up to European politicians who have criticized the European Union for imposing sanctions on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, including...