Free Republic

A look at how the majority of the rest of the world sees things through the lens of Pepe Escobar. Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian journalist and geopolitical analyst. His column "The Roving Eye" for Asia Times regularly discusses the multi-national "competition for dominance over the Middle East and Central Asia." Very useful, eye opening discussion for the very intelligent freepers. I do not recommend it for the others.

Great interview by an excellent military historian.

Resident ⚡️⚡️⚡️#Inside Office of the President is disappointed by the Western reaction to the rocket attack on Poland and attributes this to the fact that Britain is gradually starting to exit the Ukrainian case, leaving the main place of the United States. This is due, first of all, to a set of internal problems that allow London to have limited participation and support for Kyiv, which is clearly not enough for Ukraine. Resident ⚡️⚡️⚡️#Inside Our source in the OP said that all public gifts to Ukraine from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were just a veil that hid the real...

Another excellent interview. Scott Ritter differs from Col. MacGregor who thinks the errant Ukrainian missile crashing into Poland was "probably" a mistake. Ritter thinks it was a deliberate strike on Poland to force NATO into the conflict (Article4/5) But, he thinks it was done by a rogue "nationalist" (read neo-nazi) who control the missile batteries in the Western part of Ukraine which is where the missile strike originated from without Zelensky's knowledge. He also feels there is no possibility of a negotiated settlement at this time because Zelensky will not accept reality. "Ritter: How do we end this conflict? And...

Col. MacGregor has been informed by his military sources that Jake Sullivan in his back channel talks with Russia informed them that the U.S. is aware that Russia has a big offensive coming and discussed "red lines." He "threatened" Russia that the U.S. has 40,000 combat troops in Poland "training." And 50,000 Polish troops. When Russia was asked about the back channel communication with Sullivan they said, "We discussed "red lines."

The United States is extending the coronavirus pandemic public health emergency through April, President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed to CNBC on Friday. The latest extension would be the 12th renewal since government officials first declared a public health emergency in January 2020, with renewals occurring every 90 days. The decision to extend the emergency comes as public health officials reportedly expect a winter surge of coronavirus cases as individuals gather indoors more often. Officials are also concerned about the spread of omicron subvariants, CNBC reported.

When Napoleon Bonaparte began his 1812 campaign to conquer Russia, he led the largest “coalition of the willing” in history. In addition to its French core, Bonaparte’s army of more than 400,000 consisted of Italian, Dutch, German, and Polish soldiers. They were at best unenthusiastic. Frankly, other than the French, only Napoleon’s Polish allies were truly eager to march on Moscow. By the time Bonaparte’s multinational force reached Moscow, paralyzing cold, ruinous battles, exhaustion, disease, and poor logistical planning reduced the original invasion force to less than half of its original strength. It was not long before Prussia and its...

Exceptional intelligent discussion of China, Russia, the United States and the crises we face here. Danny Haiphong is a socialist activist, writer, and political analyst and an expert on China. The podcast offers in depth info about the China that we Westerners due to censorship and the narrative we are fed never have an opportunity to see. Enlightening!

Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'. Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who That it's namin'. For the loser now Will be later to win For...

Viewers comments: __________________ One of the best, if not THE best, discussions with Scott that I have ever seen...it should be mandatory viewing for all those confused about what is happening in Ukraine and the world in general. ____________________ Scott is an excellent professor. I’ve learned so much from him. But a dying empire trying to grasp to power is capable of anything including detonating a dirty bomb. ______________________ wow,wow, wow my hats off to dialogue works for having mr. Scott Ritter on, this 75 yr old viet vet knows a sincere, honest person when I see and listen to...

The theme of this year's forum is A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone. The four day-long meeting brought together 111 experts, politicians, diplomats and economists from Russia and 40 foreign countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Turkiye, the United States, and Uzbekistan, to name a few. * * * Moderator of the Valdai Club’s plenary session Fyodor Lukyanov: Good afternoon, Mr President, We look forward to seeing you every year, but this year, perhaps, we were more impatient than usual, since there are lots of issues to discuss. President of...

MK Bhadrakumar, Former Ambassador (India) Two massive terrorist strikes misfired spectacularly and a terrible beauty is born in the Ukraine war. These two carefully planned attacks in quick succession — on Nord Stream gas pipelines and Crimean Bridge — were intended as a knockout blow to Russia. According to President Vladimir Putin, people ‘who want to finally sever ties between Russia and the EU, weaken Europe’ are behind the Nord Stream blasts. He named the US, Ukraine and Poland as ‘beneficiaries’. India should expect the defeat of the US and NATO, which completes the transition to a multipolar world order....

As of Thursday, dozens of passengers on the Arkia airline were stuck in Georgia, after the flight was delayed time after time, according to Army Radio. Arkia commented: "There was a problem with the plane....

To put it simply, in the current standoff over Ukraine’s territory, Putin has the advantage as far as nuclear threats go. The ongoing brinkmanship there has revealed a serious misunderstanding on the part of some analysts and most of the media attempting to define the threats made by Biden and Putin, by relating it to the Cold War environment. The problem is that in the realm of deterrence, the U.S. no longer has a robust nuclear response at the very low end of the weapons spectrum whereas Russia does (if their maintenance is up to par). The U.S.’s ground-based tactical...

The Biden administration cancelled a meeting of the US-GCC Working Group on Iran, according to a letter obtained by news platform Semafor The Biden administration has cancelled a meeting between the United States and Saudi Arabia that was previously under review, the news platform Semafor reported on Tuesday, citing a letter from the American embassy in Riyadh. The meeting that was reportedly cancelled was the US-GCC Working Group on Iran, which would have focused on integrated air and missile defence. "The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat and hereby informs...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic revealed on Saturday that American and British leaders, including President Bill Clinton, urged Hungary to invade Serbia by land in 1999. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who told Vucic of the request, refused. In a televised address, Vucic said that the US and UK wanted Hungarian forces to push south into Serbia in order to split the Yugoslav military between the front in Kosovo and a new front with Hungary. “Clinton and the British asked [Orban] to attack Serbia from the north so that they could extend our forces from Kosovo and Metohija to Vojvodina,” he...

It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and appropriate funds”. But first, in Russia’s order of priorities, the perpetrators must be conclusively identified. Sources in Moscow confirmed...

Dimitri Simes On our pilot episode of «Against The Trend» we will focus on the conflict in Ukraine and the geopolitical implications that it poses. Our guest today is Douglas Macgregor, Colonel of U.S. Army (Ret.), Ph.D.

September 28, 2022 Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 Over Ukraine? It is safe to assume that any use of nuclear weapons could quickly lead to an escalation of a local or regional conflict into a global one. by Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the United States. As Henry Kissinger wrote in 2014, “The demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.” I have commenced my work on this article for two reasons. Firstly, this October will mark sixty years since the Cuban Missile Crisis when the USSR and the United States were...

The sabotage of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipelines in the Baltic Sea has ominously propelled 'Disaster Capitalism' to a whole new, toxic level. This episode of Hybrid Industrial/Commercial War, in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters signals the absolute collapse of international law, drowned by a “our way or the highway”, “rules-based”, order. The attack on both pipelines consisted of multiple explosive charges detonated in separate branches close to the Danish island of Bornholm, but in international waters. That was a sophisticated operation, carried out in stealth in the...