Free Republic

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” King Lear enjoined, but this we must do to upend the wrath that has emanated from the most powerful foe America has faced. As terrible as the coronavirus crisis is, we must imagine a world ten or 20 years from now, in which the People’s Republic of China’s nominal gross domestic product is 50 percent larger than that of the United States.What power would an unconstrained China wield? What force of arms would they muster to intimidate and to control?If China’s actions in the coronavirus catastrophe offer any window into this...

China placed 50 million people under quarantine in Wuhan Province in January. Since then, many liberal democracies have taken aggressive authoritarian measures of their own to fight the novel coronavirus. By mid-March, almost all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had implemented some combination of school, university, workplace, and public transportation closures; restrictions on public events; and limits on domestic and international travel. One country, however, stands out as an exception in the West. Rather than declare a lockdown or a state of emergency, Sweden asked its citizens to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis. Swedish...

At some point in the near future it's my opinion that out covid-19 strategy should enter a new phase. The strategy's timetable would depend on an actual decrease in virus cases. The two facts that convince me that the virus will come under control is the successful use of drug combinations that drastically decrease mortality and the other is the approval of a 4 hour covid-19 test. International travel should remain restricted or shut down altogether. Those under 70 should be allowed to go back to work to get the economy running again. Those 70 and older should self-isolate. This...

Two recent letters to this newspaper have reminded readers of Richard Nixon’s actions during the Vietnam War: how he escalated the terrible conflict and expanded it into Cambodia and Laos before finally agreeing to the long overdue settlement that ended it. The year of 1968 was unforgettable to history. There were so many events happening then: the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Tet Offensive, the riots after King’s murder, the unrest at the Democratic convention after Kennedy’s slaying where Humphrey took the nomination from Eugene McCarthy, the presidential campaign between...

**SNIP** “McConnell’s not going to do what you guys want him to do,” Tapper told Schiff. Schiff replied, “Well, McConnell, I think is, one success that this has already had is flushing out McConnell. Showing that he’s working in cahoots with the president, and he has made himself an active participant in the president’s cover-up. So, the American people needed to see that, and now they do.” Tapper interjected, “So, you’re never gonna get what you want, though. Isn’t that what you’re saying?” Schiff said that “wasn’t necessarily the case” and claimed that some Republican senators might reconsider their position...

Let me propose an alternative course for Pelosi. Apprise McConnell that she will forward the impeachment recommendation as soon as the Supreme Court rules on the three cases currently pending in the lower courts concerning the president's refusal to provide the documents and witnesses requested by the House Intelligence Committee and the tax returns requested by the Ways and Means Committee. The Supreme Court has already agreed to take the latter case. Chief Justice John Roberts can be urged to accelerate the schedule in all three cases, and report the verdicts prior to the customary end of the Supreme Court...

The impeachment proceedings against President Trump have fueled all manner of conjecture regarding the proper discharge of foreign policy, hidden motives behind both Trump’s phone call and the ensuing investigation, and everything from the dead-cat bounce of the Mueller Report to the Kurdish policy shift. But there are a number of questions that, while they should be asked, haven’t been. (Obligatory disclaimer: None of these questions are intended to either excuse or indict the actions of Trump, the impeachment-hearing participants, or anyone else.) 1. Why is the U.S. giving $400 million to Ukraine, anyway? It makes little sense. Europe is...

The British approach to its American colony in 1775 offers valuable lessons for historians and military professionals in the synthesis between the levels of wartime leadership and their effect on direct action at the tactical level. As such, it is worthwhile to reflect on the British experience in 1775, and how guidance from strategic and operational leaders had a dramatic impact on the opening stages of the conflict. A misalignment of desired objectives, a desire to exercise control down to the lowest echelon, and poorly executed direct leadership defined the British approach concerning the events surrounding Lexington and Concord on...

U.S. military officials are preparing to deploy thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia. During a Friday news conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said collected evidence shows Iran was responsible for attacks on Saudi oil facilities. 1,500 additional forces will be deployed to the region, including fighter squadrons and air defense systems. Iran’s state news agency announced the explosion of an oil tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday morning. Two missiles reportedly struck a vessel that belongs to the National Iranian Oil Company. A video released on the same day reportedly shows U.S. military vehicles near the Syria-Turkey...

President Donald Trump has become irritated at an emerging impression his hawkish national security advisers are marching him closer to war with Iran despite his isolationist tendencies, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead, Trump is signaling his intent to speak with the Iranians as tensions rise in the Persian Gulf, and his national security team has taken steps they hope could facilitate a new diplomatic opening. The likelihood of such an opening appears slim. But Trump has raised concern with the heightened rhetoric, believing a large-scale military intervention with Iran would be devastating to him politically, people familiar...

Slowly but steadily they build up their economic, military, and technological superiority at our expense The Chinese Communist government does not have so much a strategy to translate its economic ascendance into global hegemony as several strategies. All of them are brilliantly insidious.On matters of trade, China is always flexible in responding to critics of its asymmetrical, 30-year mercantilism. In the initial stages of Westernization, China was exempted from criticism over serial copyright and patent infringement, dumping, and espionage. Western elites assumed that these improprieties were just speed bumps on the eventual Chinese freeway to liberalism. Supposedly the richer China...

So is it two offers and a declaration of emergency or three offers THEN a declaration of emergency? Or something else?

President Donald Trump late last week told the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria that he could have several months to pull 2,000 troops out of Syria, backtracking on his initial order for a full and rapid withdrawal within 30 days, The New York Times reports. The report came after Trump tweeted that “we’re slowly sending out troops back home.” U.S. officials told the Times the conversation between Trump and Lt. Gen. Paul J. LaCamera took place during the president’s surprise trip to Iraq.

The Trump administration on Thursday announced a sharp refocus of its Africa strategy to counter what it called the “predatory” practices of China and Russia, moves which National Security Adviser John Bolton said “deliberately and aggressively targeting their investments in the region to gain a competitive advantage.” Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation,Mr. Bolton said that curbing Moscow and Beijing’s growing influence in Africa will be the White House’s top objective in the region. “Great-power competitors, namely China and Russia, are rapidly expanding their financial and political influence across Africa,” Mr. Bolton said Thursday. “They are deliberately and aggressively targeting...

Conservatives must also take the political game as seriously as the leftists do. In this country, conservatives still outnumber liberals, but you would never know it by the voting tallies As Special Counsel Robert Mueller racks up the guilty pleas for minor infractions by supporters of President Trump unrelated to Russian Collusion and ignores the crimes committed by members of the FBI, DOJ, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it should come as no surprise that Conservatives are playing in the wrong game. Even after Republicans won the White House, Senate and House of Representatives they acted as if...

Never before in our lives have we seen such corrupt calumny and hatred on spittle-flecked display Americans and their freedom-loving friends worldwide won’t be sleeping well between now and November 6 Midterms. While far too many already asleep at the switch see these Midterms as just another election, millions of patriots tossing restlessly in their sleep, see these Midterms for what they really are: a chance for Democrats in exile to regain power by getting even with the 63 million-plus people who cast their votes for Donald Trump—and not Hillary Clinton.

RUSH: So, look at this headline from the Daily Beast. It’s a left-wing publication. Headline: “Trump: Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh Want Government Shutdown Before Midterms … During yet another long, rambling rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania that was ostensibly meant to bolster Republican Lou Barletta’s attempt to unseat two-term Democratic Senator Bob Casey, President Donald Trump again brought up the idea of shutting down the government over the issue of ‘border security.’ And he made it clear which advisers he was listening to as he publicly flirts with that idea.” THE PRESIDENT: We need more Republicans, but there are friends of...

The Pentagon released a new nuclear arms policy Friday that calls for the introduction of two new types of weapons, effectively ending Obama-era efforts to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. arsenal and minimize the role of nuclear weapons in defense planning.  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in an introductory note to the new policy — the first update to the military’s nuclear strategy since 2010 — that the changes reflect a need to “look reality in the eye” and “see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”  The previous administration’s policy hinged on what...

Back around Thanksgiving time, we looked at some groundbreaking reporting from the Washington Free Beacon where they exposed some less than media-neutral activities by one member of the press. Janell Ross, a political reporter for the Washington Post, was found to have participated in a highly secretive, big dollar fundraising and strategy conference for the Democrats. To be clear, Ross was not there reporting on the conference as part of her job. She wrote no articles about it and the WaPo said they didn’t even know that she had gone. She was a participant in the event, even sitting in...

The mainstream media's usual hand-wringing about President Trump's Twitter habit morphed into hyperventilation last week after he shared several "unverified" tweets about terrorism, but the director of the Central Intelligence Agency surprisingly doesn't have a problem with it. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said at a national security event in Simi Valley, California, over the weekend that Trump's tweeting has actually yielded helpful intelligence. The current CIA director sat down with former CIA director Leon Panetta and Fox News host Brett Baier for an hour of discussion on world events from a security perspective at The Reagan National Defense Forum on...