Free Republic

When Justin Trudeau shut down Canada's spectacular 3,000-strong convoy of "freedom" truckers opposed to Canada's COVID vaccine mandates, most were appalled at the tyrannical steps taken to stop it. After all, the country was Canada, not Cuba. Son-of-Castro invoked Canada's "Emergencies Act," on "Freedom Convoy 2022," on February 14, freezing trucker bank accounts, imprisoning their leaders, shutting down a GoFundMe account for truckers, banning travel to the protests, which had attracted 15,000 people, hauling off and termininating parental rights of truckers to their own children, and expropriating their trucks. All that, over a peaceful trucker protest over a vaccine mandate.We...

Massive protest convoy by truckers in Canada against mandates by Canada and US. MSM refusing to report. Same planned by US truckers.

A significant increase in air traffic and the nation-wide worker shortage forced Nantucket Memorial Airport to suspend Jet-A fuel sales over the weekend.Fuel has since arrived on the island and sales were back on Monday, but there could be implications down the line for the small airport.Fuel usage is up 60 percent this year compared to 2019, as commercial flights have increased more than 30 percent on the island, and up to 40 percent for private jets.Assistant airport manager Noah Karberg says they've also been impacted by a low number of fuel truck drivers during the pandemic, and there has...

Now that the number of new people infected with the coronavirus in China is slowing, the country's Communist Party is ratcheting up threats against the West, with a particularly nasty warning about access to life-saving drugs aimed at the United States. In an article in Xinhua, the state-run media agency that's largely considered the mouthpiece of the party, Beijing bragged about its handling of COVID-19, a virus that originated in Wuhan and has spread quickly around the world, killing nearly 5,000 people and infecting thousands more. The article also claimed that China could impose pharmaceutical export controls which would plunge...

White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro confirmed Wednesday the administration is working on an executive order to eliminate the government’s reliance on foreign-made medical supplies. The “Buy American” order comes on the heels of concerns expressed by senators during their Tuesday meeting with President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill. [snip] The order would prevent federal agencies from purchasing medical supplies, including face masks, gloves and ventilators, from China. [snip] China has prevented the export of surgical face masks, severely limiting supplies in the U.S. and countries around the world. “China has managed to dominate all aspects...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A civilian cargo plane owned by an American company crashed at Bagram Air Field, north of the Afghan capital, soon after takeoff on Monday, killing all seven people aboard, the US-led military coalition said.

A civilian cargo plane crash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul in Afghanistan has killed seven people. Video Here

"Officials say the crash killed all seven crew members. And there is no word yet on their nationalities. "Emergency responders are still on the scene of the crash, at the sprawling base north of Kabul. Officials are still trying to determine the reason for the crash but say there's no indication of hostile fire.

Fact check: Did Obama end hot breakfasts for troops in Afghanistan?..........

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy said Monday it has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region amid rising tensions with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks one of the few times the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating in waters near the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The two carriers will support the American military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia's coast and in the Gulf of Aden,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2009 – Military transportation experts used ships and planes to deploy an Army combat unit that arrived in Afghanistan last month, marking a notable milestone for U.S. Transportation Command. The 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Wash., began departing from nearby Tacoma by ship in early May; the unit’s equipment arrived in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province July 25, about five days earlier than requested by U.S. Central Command, Army Lt. Col. John Kaylor, a transportation expert assigned to Transcom’s headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., said yesterday. More than 3,800 troops and 900 pieces...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 22, 2009 – American volunteers flying shark-faced P-40 Tomahawks protected China during World War II, and their legacy has become a fixture in the war in Afghanistan. Air Staff Sgt. James Irvin performs an air-cycle machine inspection on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, to ensure the A-10 Thunderbolt functions properly, July 20, 2009. Irvin is deployed from the 23rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Felicia Juenke  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In homage to the storied airmen of the past, the 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, deployed from...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 20, 2009 – As combat missions increase in Afghanistan, a Maine National Guard battalion here is getting increasingly busy delivering supplies to forward operating bases under dangerous conditions. Army Sgt. 1st Class Byron T. Mills, a 286th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion transportation platoon sergeant from Temple, Texas, prays with soldiers at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, before leaving on a two-day combat logistics patrol to forward operating bases Lagman and Wolverine, June 25, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elisebet Freeburg  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Riding in mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, also known as MRAPs or “gun...

NAJAF — With the recent help of many organizations back in the United States, the Iraqi Provincial Government received three pallets of humanitarian relief supplies June 21 for distribution to the local populace here. “Helping people who are less fortunate is always a good thing whether in your home town or across the world,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Fred Harmon, deputy team leader for provincial reconstruction and project coordinator at Najaf. “Overall, these shipments send a message that bridges the cultural divide. In the more immediate impact, they simply help those who need it.” “It is important because it...

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will grant President Barack Obama permission next week to ship U.S. weapons supplies across its territory, or through its airspace, en route to Afghanistan, sources on both sides told Reuters on Saturday. The transit deal will open up an important corridor for the United States as it steps up its Afghan war against Taliban insurgents by sending in more troops. Routes via Pakistan have come under attack by militants. It will be one of the main agreements signed during Obama's Moscow summit next week with Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev, the sources said. "The agreement will include...

Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the world's poorest and most remote regions, have managed to maintain a guerrilla war against materially superior U.S. and Afghan forces. Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents' corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges identical to ammunition that the United States had provided to Afghan government forces. The presence of this ammunition among the dead in an area of fighting near the Pakistan border suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against U.S....

WASHINGTON — The Army has promised to lighten the soldier’s load, and nowhere more urgently than in eastern Afghanistan, where the unforgiving terrain tests the stamina of troops whose weapons, body armor, rucksacks and survival gear can weigh 130 pounds. But an experiment to shave up to 20 pounds off a soldier’s burden — much of it by reducing the bulletproof plates that protect the chest and back — has stalled, leaving $3 million in new, lightweight equipment sitting in a warehouse in the United States instead of being sent to the war zone where it was to have been...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2009 – The war may be fought in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, but for most troops and cargo heading into theater, it starts on a small air strip just outside of Kuwait City, Kuwait. Two airmen from the 386th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron work to unload cargo from a C-17 Globemaster III at a small air strip in Kuwait, March 17, 2009. The airmen facilitate the most cargo and troops to theater of any air portal in the region. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

It has been a grim couple of weeks for the snack lovers of Camp Phoenix. First Doritos, then Snickers, now Coca-Cola: all have disappeared from the usually packed shelves of the camp store. They were among the more expendable supplies lost when the Pakistani Taleban set fire to containers bound for US bases in Afghanistan close to the Khyber Pass. The denuded shelves underline a far more serious problem for the US: how to fuel the military effort in Afghanistan in the face of diminishing regional leverage and growing opposition from neighbours. Weeks of attacks by the Taleban on convoys...

A day after blowing up a crucial land bridge, Taliban militants torched 10 supply trucks returning from Afghanistan to Pakistan on Wednesday, underscoring the insurgents' dominance of the main route used to transport supplies to Afghan-based U.S. and NATO troops. Months of disruptions on the route from the Pakistani port of Karachi through the historic Khyber Pass have forced NATO and American military authorities to look for other transit options. About three-quarters of the supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan -- mainly food and fuel -- are ferried through Pakistan by contractors, usually poorly paid, semiliterate truckers. Many now refuse...