Free Republic

A number of Republican senators and conservative pundits want regime change in Iran. “I think it is very much in the interest of America to see regime change,” Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News on Sunday. “I don't think there's any redeeming the ayatollah.” Most pushing for regime change know they can’t go full neocon to sell the idea. The public is repelled by anything resembling the warmongering against Saddam Hussein, particularly talk about nation building. So advocates for regime change in Iran have settled on a new formula: regime change, but without the nation building. Supposedly, this is completely...

...eight months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Lukashenko’s Russian-enabled grip on power risks slipping as Moscow pressures him to get more involved in the faltering military campaign next door in Ukraine. Artyom Shraibman, a Belarusian political analyst who fled to Poland after a brutal crackdown on postelection protests in 2020, cautioned that it was unclear exactly what Putin had asked of the Belarusian leader in St. Petersburg but, he added: “it is very clear that Lukashenko is not yet willing to join the war” because of the immense political risks that would bring. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a Belarusian opposition leader and a...