Free Republic

The US is sending up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake. President Barack Obama pledged one of the biggest relief efforts in recent US history and said Haiti would "not be forgotten" in its hour of need. The search for survivors continues but rescuers lack heavy lifting equipment and many are using their bare hands. The Red Cross estimates 45,000-50,000 people are dead and up to 3m affected. BBC correspondents say the situation is increasingly desperate, with aid only trickling in. Mr Obama confirmed that some US...

President Barack Obama says he has no intention of sending American troops to Yemen or Somalia, but won't rule out the possibility.

As part of his push to win over the people of Afghanistan, top US Gen. Stanley McChrystal in July abolished air attacks in all but the most dire of circumstances. But that ban is having all kinds of ugly and unexpected consequences. US troops are paying a tough price for it. Consider the running firefight that Echo Company of the 2nd Batallion, 8th Marines faced in the town of Mian Poshteh in late August. For 36 hours, the local Taliban did everything they could to kill the Marines of Echo Company. The militants planted improvised bombs. They fired mortar rounds...

While the Pentagon may not have been listening to the increasing calls, from the troops, for a militarized smart phone, one defense supplier (Raytheon) has, and resulted in RATS (Raytheon Android Tactical System). Taking advantage of the open source Android operating system (think of it as mobile Linux), and the thousands of applications already available for it, RATS combines this with increasingly powerful, and inexpensive smart phone hardware, to produce something the troops want. Actually, RATS isn't a phone, it's a wi-fi device that looks like one (as does the Ipod Touch). RATS has GPS, a compass, vidcam and software...

Now, I want to give you more hope: We are Americans. Anything is possible in America. Anyone can make a positive difference. You don’t need a title or a political position or a pedigree. We can take our country back from those who think growing national debt will grow prosperity for us, the little guys. We can take it back from those who think shrinking military power will make the homeland safer for us, the little guys.

On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 157 service members became America's newest citizens during a naturalization ceremony in Al Faw Palace, Camp Victory, Baghdad. Photo by Lee Craker, MNC-I. BAGHDAD — A naturalization ceremony here on Veterans Day in Camp Victory's Al Faw Palace saw 157 U.S. Soldiers and Marines from 60 countries take the oath to become United States citizens. "How fitting it is that so many, on this Veterans Day, will gain their American citizenship while serving in 'America's Corps'," said Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., commanding general of Multi-National Corps - Iraq. "I can think of no...

There was an international uproar when, on Sept. 4, in Afghanistan's Kunduz province, an American fighter jet under NATO command bombed a group of Taliban fighters who had hijacked two fuel tanker trucks. The trucks exploded, the fighters were killed, and so were a still-undetermined number of Afghan civilians. When McChrystal met with local leaders in Kunduz, a few days after the bombing, he got an earful -- but not what he expected. McChrystal began the meeting with a show of sympathy for those who had been killed or wounded. The general didn't get very far before he was interrupted...

U.S. soldiers were given a true Irish welcome at a wedding in Co Clare this week. The 300 troops were stranded in Shannon last weekend after their Iraq-bound plane was grounded. As luck would have it, they were booked into the same hotel as the wedding party for Amelia Walsh and Sean O'Neill. And so the 300 troops were invited to join the festivities at the Clare Inn in Newmarket-on-Fergus. The groom's uncle, Joe O'Neill said: "It didn’t take long before the combat fatigues were manoeuvring to the strains of ‘The Walls of Limerick'." The happy couple posed for pictures...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials. The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary. The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned,...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2009 – The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from all Iraqi cities and towns was completed over the weekend and ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, a Pentagon spokesman said on a cable TV news show today. “Overall, the security situation is stable enough for Iraqi security forces to take on this added responsibility,” Geoff Morrell said on CNN’s “Newsroom.” “It’s one that they want, and it’s one that the commanders on the ground feel they are capable of taking on. “It has to be OK because there’s a legal agreement, which forces us to abide by these timelines,”...

NAJAF, Iraq — A stream of U.S. military trucks laden with supplies rolled down a dusty four-lane highway over the weekend, ending the U.S. presence in one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities. Coalition forces, including U.S., British and Spanish troops, have patrolled Najaf, with its population of around 900,000, since it was captured by the 101st Airborne Division in April 2003. The city has had its share of violence since then. Uprisings by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia in 2004 sparked fierce fighting in the Wadi al-Salem — a sprawling cemetery where Shiites from around the world hope to be...

Kyrgyzstan has reversed a Russian order to evict the US military from an airbase close to Afghanistan in a significant foreign policy victory for Barack Obama. After winning major financial concessions from Washington, the Kyrgyz government said it had agreed to allow the US Air Force to retain control of the Manas Airbase for at least one more year. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev The move, which comes a fortnight before Mr Obama visits Moscow, was welcomed by the United States, which has emphasised the base's importance in the campaign to defeat the Taliban. "We applaud the decision by the Kyrgyz Republic...

Kyrgyzstan has reversed a Russian order to evict the US military from an airbase close to Afghanistan in a significant foreign policy victory for Barack Obama. After winning major financial concessions from Washington, the Kyrgyz government said it had agreed to allow the US Air Force to retain control of the Manas Airbase for at least one more year. The move, which comes a fortnight before Mr Obama visits Moscow, was welcomed by the United States, which has emphasised the base's importance in the campaign to defeat the Taliban.

US commander in Iraq claims the military has largely honored the security agreement with Baghdad amid, what he claimed to be, a relative lull in militant activities. On Monday, General Ray Odierno said the pullout from urban areas was on the go with the troops having left the Iraqi forces in charge of 142 former US bases, Xinhua reported. Briefing a press conference in Baghdad, he suggested a link between the withdrawal and an alleged respite in al-Qaeda-linked attacks -- which the United States projects as an outcome its invasion of Iraq. Odierno claimed the US was 'absolutely committed' to...

U.S. combat forces will vacate all Iraqi cities on schedule by the end of this month, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Tuesday, including the still violent insurgent holdout of Mosul.

ome analysts argue that the US military presence in South Korea has pushed Pyongyang into an arms race. Bruce Klingner, the former head of the CIA's Korea branch, spoke to Al Jazeera about how t...

Guam - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is slated to sign the Guam International Agreement in Tokyo this afternoon at 12:20 pm, that's 1:20 pm Guam time. The Agreement promises to move 8,000 US troops from Okinawa to Guam. Following the signing of the agreement Clinton will hold a press conference with Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone. She flies onto Indonesia tomorrow, then South Korea on Friday and China on Saturday. She will not be stopping on Guam.

WARPLANES raided a militant hideout in northwestern Afghanistan overnight, killing two rebel commanders and several fighters, the US-led military and a police official said. A rebel compound was targeted in the province of Badghis, a troubled region on the Turkmenistan border, the US-led force said in a statement. Mullah Dastagir, a key militant leader and several of his associates were killed in the "precision air strike", the statement said. Dastagir was responsible for several attacks on Afghan and international forces, including a deadly ambush last November, the statement added. "Dastagir was responsible for an increase in violence in Badghis over...

AP's headline is "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers." But of course they didn't get involved in this plot because they were cousins. The Department of Homeland Security doesn't need to begin a Global War On Cousins. They did this because they wanted to wage jihad. They met the jihad recruiter at a Muslim convention. They were clearly inspired by Islamic teachings regarding the necessity to wage war against unbelievers. But since none of that is suitable for an AP headline, we get...cousins. An update on this story. "Cousins plead guilty in plot to kill US soldiers,"...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An unprecedented security blanket has been draped over the US capital for Barack Obama's inauguration next week, and the threat level to the country's first black president is expected to remain high well beyond his swearing-in. More than 12,500 active troops and military reservists, thousands of metropolitan police as well as personnel from 57 departments around the nation are descending on Washington to protect against any potential terrorist attack during Tuesday's historic ceremony, according to officials. With estimates of up to a record two million people attending, the Department of Homeland Security has designated Obama's inauguration a...