Free Republic

US and China WAR May be Inevitable, As Economy Collapses And Democrats And GOP Fight, War Approaches. The Thucydides Trap says that whenever a rising power moves to displace the existing superpower war is inevitable. 5 years ago The Atlantic wrote that not only was war with the US and China likely it was way more likely than anyone realized. They wrote that something could happen that will cause a cascade affect resulting in total war. And now many people are bullish on war. A series of military confrontations, China's attempts to cause us harm during the crisis, the collapse...

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states launched airstrikes against rebel forces in Yemen’s capital and across the country in defense of what Riyadh called the nation’s legitimate government. The attacks began Thursday morning, hours after Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, fled the southern port city of Aden by boat when Iranian-backed Houthi militants closed in. The decision by Saudi Arabia and the region’s Sunni monarchies to intervene on Mr. Hadi’s behalf raises the stakes in their rivalry with predominantly Shiite Iran, which has raged in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region. The raids also risked further inflaming sectarian...

In the past there were excuses for those inclined to ignore or deny the horrors the Democratic People's Republic of Korea routinely visits upon its subjects. Defectors have an ax to grind, we were told. American intelligence is making up stories, and Pyongyang's foreign enemies stand to profit from these tales. There is nowhere for North Korea's apologists to hide now. The 200,000-word, nearly 400-page report released Monday by the "commission of inquiry" for the United Nations Human Rights Council, led by the Australian jurist Michael Kirby, in effect presents the world with the black book on North Korean communism....

... “So what, we’re about to become al-Qaeda’s air force now?” Kucinich sarcastically asked The Hill. He went on to warn against attempting to “minimize” an intervention by terming it a “targeted strike.” Such a strike, he said, would still constitute an act of war. Kucinich also blasted the Obama administration for “rushing” into what he said could become a third world war, and he cast doubt on reports by rebels of governmental forces using chemical weapons. He declared that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a “pretext.” “The verdict is in before the facts have been gathered,”...

How America can stop what the New York Times calls “Israel’s March to War” is the hot topic this month. The issue—for the Times—is whether Israel is on the verge of bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, or can be persuaded to delay that decision and rely on the United States instead. This is what a parade of U.S. officials visiting Jerusalem this summer have counseled (and pressured) Israel to do. But the comments of Israel’s top officials suggest that its patience is wearing thin and that it may act soon, in weeks if not months. As the Associated Press put it,...

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi opened two new missile production plants on Saturday, just three days after Iran fired a rocket carrying live animals into space, state television reported. The plants will produce a ground-to-air missile dubbed the Qaem (Rising) and a surface-to-surface missile dubbed Toofan 5 (Storm), state television reported. The Qaem is designed to target helicopters at low and medium altitudes, it added. Iran unveiled the new plants as part of its celebrations for the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution later this month. On Wednesday, Iran launched a capsule carrying turtles, rats and worms aboard its Kavoshgar 3...

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was all bluster last weekend, flashing his missiles, hurling insults and spoiling for a fight with Colombia. The big danger here isn't Chavez, but growing White House indifference to an ally. This fall, when U.S. officials agreed to expanded military-base access in Colombia to fight drug trafficking and terrorism, it never occurred to them how much Chavez would use the arrangement as a pretext for aggression. "They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said Monday. So from Russia, he said, "thousands of missiles are arriving," along with T-72 military tanks "to strengthen our armored divisions."...

Those war drums have a familiar beat Cheney's tough talk on Iran and an updated report on security sound eerily like the run-up to Iraq invasion James Klurfeld March 17, 2006 To paraphrase Ronald Reagan in his 1980 debate with President Jimmy Carter: There they go again. In this case I'm referring to the Bush administration's just-released update of its National Security Strategy statement. In it, the administration reaffirms its belief in war to stop a nation from acquiring nuclear weapons. The review gives almost no indication that the administration has learned anything from the debacle that has resulted from...