Free Republic

His name is David Aguina and he’s an Army reservist. His UCMJ claims against Soltz seem thin to me — Article 88 prohibits “contemptuous words” directed at the president, not criticism, and Article 91 seems to apply only to lower-ranking soldiers and only when on duty — but it’s hard not to be moved by his story about his experience with Iraqis. Meanwhile, via LGF, one of the yKos panelists parries right-wing criticism of the incident with some clever stammering about chickenhawks. Unmentioned in his post: Glenn Greenwald, Atrios, Max Blumenthal, Ken Layne, and the countless millions of other...

The headline in Pravda trumpeted President Vladimir V. Putin’s latest coup, its nationalistic fervor recalling an era when the newspaper served as the official mouthpiece of the Kremlin: “Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers the World.” The article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. The deal made Rosatom one of the world’s largest uranium producers and brought Mr. Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the global uranium supply chain. But the untold story behind that story is...

WHEN the first democratically, constitutionally elected prime minister of Iraq spoke before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, a group of Democrats protested by sitting the speech out. Among the no-shows was California's own Sen. Barbara Boxer. Her loss. Boxer, the Senate's leading proponent of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, could have gained much from Nouri Kamal al-Maliki's impassioned plea on behalf of the people who risked their lives to elect him. It would have done her well to hear his exhortations that America not abandon Iraqis in their fight against Islamist terror, or undermine their brave effort to establish a...

For the Bush administration, its conflict with Iran began with news of the Iranian nuclear enrichment program. For Iranians, the conflict started in 1901 when the British took advantage of a weak government to obtain a highly profitable oil concession. Since then, Iran has been locked in a struggle to control its own destiny, even at the risk of confrontation with the international community. Every successive American President since Jimmy Carter has been inaugurated with the historical conflict with Iran. The Iran Libya Sanctions Act, although lifted for Libya, is still in full effect for Iran. Also the US remains...