Free Republic

Here are twelve comical but true resolutions that every liberal should make for 2013: 1.) Resolve to spend time with gun-owners. I have a liberal friend who says she would rather be in the same room as a cobra snake than a gun, even an unloaded gun. Guns really, really scare her. But guns don’t kill. People kill. Whether the tool is a gun or a knife or a baseball bat, unconscionable people kill, not the inanimate objects in their hands. Banning all tools and machinery will not turn bad people into good people. Doing so would make us more...

More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait and 17,000 more are on their way in response to the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into northern Iraq, according to a report published Monday by Iran's Press TV. The news follows by four days a report from the Russian news service RT that the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower has joined the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Syria. Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued stern warnings to Syria about unspecified but serious "consequences" that would follow if...

The USS Eisenhower, an American aircraft carrier that holds eight fighter bomber squadrons and 8,000 men, arrived at the Syrian coast yesterday in the midst of a heavy storm, indicating US preparation for a potential ground intervention. While the Obama administration has not announced any sort of American-led military intervention in the war-torn country, the US is now ready to launch such action "within days" if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decides to use chemical weapons against the opposition, the Times reports.

On the heels of a pivotal national election, I'd like to remind Americans that it is our troops' service and sacrifice that safeguards our precious right to cast those ballots and savor the freedoms that we hold dear. They represent the best of America. Yesterday, we honored all U.S. veterans and troops currently serving for their unwavering courage, their dedication to keeping our nation strong and protecting the liberties we continue to enjoy. We also pay tribute to the wounded, missing, fallen and their families. My father, Ray, fought and was wounded in World War II in the Battle of...

f Iraqis were hoping that the withdrawal of U.S. forces last year would finally mean the end of war, al Qaeda and its Sunni militant allies are determined to prove otherwise. Daily bombings and shootings remain an endemic feature of life. In the past three months, al Qaeda-linked fighters have been blamed for attacks that have killed at least 250 people. In a particularly poignant reminder of militants' potency this week, gunmen in unauthorized uniforms of special commandos drove from checkpoint to checkpoint in the western town of Haditha before dawn, gunning down police. They killed 27 including two officers...

Four years ago, this annual Christmas column was written from Baquba, Iraq, while our Fox News "War Stories" team was embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division and special operations units operating against the Iranian-supported Mahdi Army in the outskirts of Baghdad. A year earlier, the Christmas 2006 column was written in Ramadi, Iraq, while we were embedded with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines in what was then the bloodiest place on the planet. And in 2005, this column originated with 3d Battalion, 7th Marines and the 2nd Brigade of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, in Anbar province,...

I am from a military family – my father was career – and many members of my immediate and extended family have served and now serve. So perhaps I carry heightened sensitivities to the unique realities and challenges of military life. With the news about our withdrawal from Iraq, our troops, and the importance of national acknowledgement of their service and sacrifice, were already on my mind when I arrived for a meeting in the office of Congressman Allen West (R-FL). There, by chance, I met whom I’ll call Lt Col Sam. Lt Col Sam is in her 24th year...

Maher says 'nobody' in Japan gov't was in charge early in nuclear crisis By Mari Yamaguchi National Aug. 19, 2011 - 02:30PM JST ( 54 ) TOKYO — Early in the Fukushima nuclear crisis, U.S. officials felt that nobody in Japan’s government was taking charge, and Washington considered evacuating American troops in a worst-case scenario, a retired U.S. envoy said Thursday. When the March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off the crisis by crippling the Fukushima Daiichi plant and sending it toward meltdown, Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s administration initially acted as if it was only the plant operator’s problem, not...

PAKISTAN'S military has demanded the US cut its troop presence in the country to a "minimum" as the fallout from the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden intensifies. After days of questions in Washington over how bin Laden could find shelter in the town of Abbottabad, army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani threatened to "review" cooperation with the US in the event of another similar raid. Pakistan is a key US ally in the war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, but the relationship between Washington and Islamabad was tense even before the architect of the September 11, 2001...

(Reuters) - Six troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a shooting on Wednesday involving an Afghan Air Force pilot at the airport in the Afghan capital, ISAF said in a brief statement.

In an apparent Muslim terrorist attack, a gunman opened fire on a U.S. Air Force bus outside Frankfurt airport Wednesday, killing two airmen and wounding two others. A source told Fox News that the shooter yelled "Allahu Akbar" - the Muslim battle cry - as he began firing. Kosovo's interior minister told The Associated Press that German police have identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a citizen of Kosovo from the northern town of Mitrovica.

U.S. Soldier Killed In Frankfurt Airport Shooting MYFOXNY.COM - Two people including a U.S. soldier died Wednesday in a shooting involving a bus carrying U.S. troops at Germany's Frankfurt airport, local newspapers reported. An airport spokesperson confirmed that shots were fired "near or on" a bus carrying U.S. soldiers. Two others were injured in the attack at Terminal 2 of the airport, one of Europe's busiest. The driver and one U.S. soldier died in the attack, Main-Spitze newspaper reported. A 21-year-old man, reportedly from Kosovo, was arrested at the scene, reports said. The U.S. Army Europe said it had no...

– [Update 8:38 p.m. Cairo, 1:38 p.m. ET] A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The small team of Marines, about a dozen according to one of the officials, are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST). The Marines are inside the embassy perimeter. Egyptian military and security forces continue to provide security outside the embassy, the officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled southern and eastern regions, NATO said Sunday. Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified. The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July's high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died...

Fox News, outgoing Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s least favorite news channel (he banned it from the televisions in his HQ), reports that one of the first moves of incoming Afghan commander Gen. David Petraeus will be to loosen the controversial rules of engagement in Afghanistan to allow more artillery and air strikes. Troops in Afghanistan complain they’re fighting with one hand tied behind their back because of the various “directives” issued by McChrystal restricting the use of indirect fires in an effort to curtail civilian casualties. Not so fast, reports Leo Shane with Stars and Stripes, who asked Petraeus’...

In the damned if you do, damned if you don’t category, the Army’s new M320 grenade launcher is facing stiff criticism over one of the principle advantages of the system requested by Soldiers and touted by the Army. There were lots of M320s among Joes in the 3rd BCT of the 101st Airborne — in fact I don’t remember seeing a single M203 among them. But just about everyone I asked about the new H&K-made M320 was that they miss the 203. I got the sense that this was mostly a reaction against changing from a tried and true system...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Lockheed Martin a $3.93 million contract to develop a rifle-scope attachment to enhance soldiers’ marksmanship capabilities. The Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic or DInGO system will enable soldiers to accurately view targets at varying distances without changing scopes or suffering a decrease in optical resolution. The system will enhance soldiers’ ability to accurately hit targets at a range of between three and 600 meters. DInGO automatically calculates the range with a low power laser rangefinder, digitally zooms in on it and accounts for environmental conditions such as wind using sensors built into the...

A U.S. Patriot missile battery has arrived in Poland as part of an agreement to upgrade the NATO ally's air defenses, the U.S. embassy said on Monday, in a deployment likely to irritate neighboring Russia.The battery, manned by up to 150 U.S. troops, will be stationed for about one month four times a year in Morag, northern Poland, close to Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad. Its main mission is to train Polish military personnel. U.S. troops were unloading 37 railway cars of equipment on Monday, the embassy said. U.S. and Polish officials are due to visit the site on Wednesday and...

Soldiers already have uniforms that blend them into their surroundings. Now there's instructions on how to have a weapon that blends in too. In April, the Army released instructions on how Soldiers can apply spray paint to their M4 or M16 rifle, without decreasing the effectiveness of either the weapon or the installed optics. "The Army has always had techniques to camouflage the Soldier ... we have techniques for the Soldier and the equipment," said Col. Douglas A. Tamilio, project manager for Soldier Weapons, Program Executive Office Soldier. "We found in Iraq and Afghanistan that Soldiers were starting to paint...

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama gave up on a bedrock campaign pledge and accepted a longstanding U.S. proposal for positioning American troops in Japan, backing down from a battle with Washington as the two nations grapple with North Korea's aggression and China's rising power in the region. The move hands the Obama administration an important foreign-policy victory, allowing Washington to avoid what, for a time, appeared to be an unwelcome need to rearrange its regional defense strategy in North Asia while fighting two wars and navigating other tense diplomatic and economic tussles around the world. Beyond the specifics of the Marine...