Free Republic

As a practical matter, any modern military offensive launched without air cover is a suicide mission. Ukraine no longer has much of an air force, even with the addition of perhaps a dozen or so old MIG-29s acquired from NATO countries. Some of those are not flyable and others are being disassembled and used for parts. Ukraine’s operational fighter aircraft have to fly against more advanced Russian fighters including the formidable Su-35, and survive in combat against mobile Russian air defenses. Whatever Ukraine has, its air force cannot be expected to last more than a few days in a major...

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, has promised it will "set our imaginations alight". And so his gallery's latest exhibition will have to, considering the fact that every piece of art inside it will be invisible. From a bare plinth to a canvas painted entirely with invisible ink, the imagination of the paying public will play a decisive role in the success or failure of the show, the first of its kind in Britain. For £8 visitors will be able to marvel at – or search in vain for – 50 works of "invisible art" by leading names including...

Watching the NFL playoff games, I heard the announcer discussing the possibility of the first black coach going to the Super Bowl. A black coach has never made it to the Super Bowl. Really? I was surprised. Surely someone had done that, I thought, but no, no one had. Race will always matter whether we want it to or not. Milestones like this will be noticed less and less, though, as we become a more accepting place for people of all colors. I asked NewsOK users if it is significant that two black coaches - Lovie Smith of the Bears...

Updated: 08:27 AM EST Deployments Stretching Army, Study Finds By ROBERT BURNS, AP advertisement WASHINGTON (Jan. 25) - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon. Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force...