Free Republic

What is good has become bad, evil has become good, and moral values have been replaced by moral relativism, decadence, and filth. America continues to be fundamentally transformed from the shadows. In the spring of 2007 I was teaching a small class of non-traditional students, some as young as eighteen and some older than I was. It was an interesting mixture of blacks, whites, Hispanics, civilians and military who had jobs during the day and took classes at night to finish their college degrees. They were not the pampered and entitled snowflakes of today; they were hard-working Americans from all...

Christians in Turkey have – throughout the centuries — been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority.  The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque againThe Hagia Sophia, Greek for “Holy Wisdom,” was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon.  Watch this short video by the marine archaeologist Susan Langley to see the unique etchings on the walls of the former church: The third and youngest of the Hagia Sophia’s in Turkey, the church was first converted to a mosque during...

For most city-dwellers, the elevator is an unremarkable machine that inspires none of the passion or interest that Americans afford trains, jets, and even bicycles. Wilk is a member of a small group of elevator experts who consider this a travesty. Without the elevator, they point out, there could be no downtown skyscrapers or residential high-rises, and city life as we know it would be impossible. In that sense, they argue, the elevator’s role in American history has been no less profound or transformative than that of the automobile.

The living tissue inside an animal has been regressed back into an embryonic state for the first time, Spanish researchers say. They believe it could lead to new ways of repairing the body, for example after a heart attack. However, the study published in the journal Nature, showed the technique led to tumours forming in mice. Stem cell experts said it was a "cool" study, but would need to be much more controlled before leading to therapies.

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2008 – In the past year, the Iraqi army has transformed into a national force that has deployed across the country in operations that show its increasing combat capabilities, a senior commander there said today. “There should be no mistake on the behalf of anyone that the Iraqi army is a national army,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Robin Swan, commander of the Coalition Army Advisory Training Team. “Just over the past year, it has made a tremendous, tremendous impact in areas throughout Iraq. In as short as nine to 12 months ago, [it was unimaginable] that...

HAWIJAH, Iraq, March 2, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff walked through the bustling market street of this Iraqi town today – a town that al Qaeda ruled just three months ago. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen saw a market crowded with people and shops stocked with goods. And he saw American soldiers and their Iraqi security forces partners operating with incredible professionalism. Three months ago, this northern Iraqi city was the “Wild West,” said Army Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of Multinational Division North. But a new sheriff came to town in the form of the...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2007 – When the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks stoked his sense of patriotism, a 15-year-old from Queens, N.Y., decided to enlist in the U.S. military following high school graduation. Marine Cpl. Sean M. Henry is telling the military’s story to the American public at community and business events, veterans organizations and other gatherings as part of the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public outreach program. Defense Department photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I felt like the country needed me to help fill a void in military service,” said Marine Cpl. Sean M. Henry,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2006 – The military health system has revolutionized battlefield medical care in the past four years, reducing fatalities and raising the quality of care to all-time high levels, two Defense Department officials said here today. Injured servicemembers are now more quickly transported from the battlefield to medical facilities where they can receive advanced care, and more of them are surviving because of it, David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said at the State of the Military Health System 2006 Annual Conference. "You have produced the lowest loss among wounded that this country has...

THE END OF BAATHIST SYRIA? As Bernard Lewis recently explained on these pages, Saddam Hussein's Baath party is rooted in Nazi ideology. Thus do many Western experts, drawing on the post-war German model, speak of Iraq's de-Baathification as a necessary step for the emergence of a humane, pluralistic regime in Baghdad. But Iraq is not the only country to come under the sway of Baathism's poisonous mixture of socialism and pan-Arabism. For four decades, Syria too has been run by Baathists. And while Bashar Assad, the country's ruler, is not nearly as cruel as Saddam, Syria, like Iraq, is a...