Free Republic

The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday. "I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid said, on the same day US President George W. Bush was giving a speech at an Ohio town hall meeting defending the war on terror.

Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday blasted the Bush administration for war and homeland security policies that he said leave Americans more vulnerable to attack. Kerry’s remarks came in a Faneuil Hall speech on the eve of tomorrow’s five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In his fourth speech this year at the venue, Kerry accused the administration of using the tragedy that killed about 3,000 Americans to justify the war in Iraq. “It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn (to) excuse the invasion of Iraq,” Kerry said. “They were attacked and killed not by Saddam...

HALIFAX - The United States and other western countries should be pushing hard for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, along with the insertion of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday. The Islamic group Hezbollah's tactics are at the root of the latest bloody conflict in the region, but Clinton also questioned the length to which Israel has gone to defend itself. "It's important for us to get some kind of ceasefire now," Clinton said. "I think this idea of an international force needs to be fleshed out." His position stands in...

"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan is so angry that she wasn't allowed to disrupt last night's State of the Union address that intends to file a lawsuit claiming she was brutalized by Capitol Hill police who suppressed her first amendment freedoms. "I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it," Sheehan said, in a message posted to several left wing web sites after she was arrested and then released on her own recognizance. Sheehan also contends she suffered emotional trauma, complaining: "I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight." The Bush-bashing Gold Star mom says she...