Free Republic

When Russian President Vladimir Putin warned earlier this month that Western approval for Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia would mean Moscow was at war with NATO, Russian propagandists rushed to rattle the nuclear saber. Alexander Mikhailov, director of the Bureau of Military Political Analysis, called for bombing plywood mock-ups of London and Washington — complete with reproductions of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the White House — to simulate nuclear strikes, so that they would “burn so beautifully that it will horrify the world.” The speaker of the lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned that strikes on Russia would lead...

Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down Tuesday on the Biden administration’s policy of withholding 2,000-lb. precision munitions from Israel as a response to its decision to pursue Hamas terrorists in the city of Rafah in Gaza. The administration admitted withholding a shipment of weapons after Israel attacked Rafah, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) accused the administration of slowing the delivery of a wide variety of other weapons Congress had approved. Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down Tuesday on the Biden administration’s policy of withholding 2,000-lb. precision munitions from Israel as a response to its decision to pursue Hamas terrorists in...

WASHINGTON – Much of the $7.1 billion in military equipment and technology President Biden left behind in Afghanistan after his botched withdrawal was still operable despite Pentagon claims to the contrary – including fingerprint devices the Taliban later used to track down down American’s abandoned Afghan allies, according to a comprehensive report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the fiasco. Throughout the August 2021 withdrawal and its aftermath, both the Defense Department and the Harris-Biden administration repeatedly asserted that “nearly all equipment used by US military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal.” However,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used a meeting Friday with top United States military leaders and 50 partner nations to call for yet more weaponry even as the Biden administration confirmed it would rush another $250 million in security assistance to Kyiv. Zelensky added systems that were promised already have been too slow to arrive as he again stated his desire to directly strike at Russia deep behind its borders. AP reports U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting of the leaders at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight...

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told CNN the Biden administration is still considering his request to lift restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons to strike deeper inside Russian territory and confirmed he’d presented a list of targets in meetings with senior officials in Washington on Friday“We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect the citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov said in an interview with CNN’s Alex Marquardt on “The Situation Room.”Despite repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the US is not currently expected to...

Opinion The American military-industrial complex, coined by President Eisenhower in 1961, has shaped US foreign policy and military strategy while perpetuating global conflicts The American military-industrial complex, a term popularized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961, refers to the synergistic relationship between a nation's armed forces, its defence industry, and its political establishment. This complex has played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy and military strategy, leading to extensive global influence and numerous conflicts over the past century. While wars undoubtedly bring immense destruction and suffering, they have also generated substantial profits for...

America has pledged over $100 billion in military aid since the War in Ukraine began. Most of that stays in the US to fund military operations and weapons contracts. But the US has also sent Ukraine its own shells, tanks, rockets, cannons, anti-tank weapons, drones, and missile defense systems worth $1 billion each. So which weapons have proven most critical on the battlefield? And will the latest round of aid really help Ukraine against Russian forces in a war many are calling a stalemate?

On Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said he was “comfortable” at this point with Ukrainian forces using U.S. weapons on Russian soil. According to the Arizona Democrat, Ukraine’s move to attack Russia on its turf could “change the tide” of the conflict. “Let me ask you about Ukraine. I know you are very focused on that war,” host Margaret Brennan said. “Their forces launched this bold incursion into Western Russia, into this Kursk area. Are you comfortable with U.S. weapons being used on Russian soil?”

The president is reversing a ban on selling offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia and advancing taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel.It's been a good week for the weapons industry. President Joe Biden signed off on order after order allowing American weapons to flow to Middle Eastern regimes. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration will sell shipments of bombs worth $750 million to Saudi Arabia, breaking its ban on selling "offensive weapons" to the kingdom. On the same day, the State Department announced over $20 billion in new arms sales to Israel, including fighter jets, armored vehicles,...

The State Department announced on Saturday that it would lift a three-year ban on selling certain weapons to Saudi Arabia, allowing some $750 million worth of bombs to be sold to the Saudi kingdom within the next few months. “The deliveries will include 3,000 Small Diameter Bombs and 7,500 Paveway IV bombs, which have been on hold since President Biden halted the shipments in 2021 over Saudi Arabia’s punishing war in Yemen,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

NATO leaders plan to pledge next week to keep pouring arms and ammunition into Ukraine at current levels for at least another year, hoping to reassure the war-ravaged country of their ongoing support and show Russian President Vladimir Putin that they will not walk away. U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet in Washington for a three-day summit beginning Tuesday to mark the military alliance’s 75th anniversary as Russian troops press their advantage along Ukraine’s eastern front in the third year of the war. ... they want to put on a fresh display of unity and resolve, even as...

The 7th Brigade combat team, including soldiers of the 7th Brigade, the Givati Brigade, and the Paratroopers Brigade, have been leading the 98th Division’s operation in the ​​Shejaiya area over the past few days. This past weekend, the soldiers eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and with aerial fire support. As part of operational searches of civilian structures converted into terrorist infrastructure, the soldiers raided a UN school that the terrorists of the Shejaiya Battalion were using as a hideout and a warehouse. The troops discovered dozens of weapons, grenades, and valuable intelligence documents. Video Additionally, the soldiers located...

CHICAGO — The burglar who went viral after being attacked by a frying pan-wielding homeowner is a 12-time convicted felon who was paroled three months ago on burglary, forgery, theft, and stolen motor vehicle cases, according to court filings. Bradley Willenborg, 31, provided Chicago cops with the alias “Brandon Williams” and a fake birthdate after they arrested him in the 3400 block of West Parker around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Judge Susana Ortiz ordered him detained yesterday afternoon because of a safety risk. [snip] As he entered his ransacked home, Williams encountered Willenborg on the stairs coming from the second floor,...

The Biden administration has decided to move Ukraine to the top of the list on countries receiving air defense weapons, and effectively making American allies wait at least 16 months for those same weapons. The administration said it was because in recent months Russia has stepped up its missile and drone attacks in Ukraine in an attempt to destroy its energy system ahead of the winter. “This is not a new tactic for them, but they have certainly applied a lot more energy and effort into it in recent months,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video statement Tuesday urging the U.S. to stop withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel. In May, the Biden administration confirmed that it was withholding heavy precision bombs from Israel in protest against Israel’s decision to enter the southern Gaza town of Rafah to fight the last remaining Hamas battalions. As a result, Israel was forced to send troops into potentially booby-trapped buildings rather than bombing them. The White House said it was concerned about Palestinian civilian casualties, but a million civilians left Rafah.

SNIP A new study published in the American Journal of Men’s Health has debunked the long-held assumption that men dissatisfied with their penis size are more likely to own guns. Contrary to popular belief, the research found that men who are more satisfied with their penis size are actually more likely to own guns. The relationship between penis size dissatisfaction and gun ownership has been a topic of widespread speculation in popular culture for years. Many believe that men who feel insecure about their penis size may compensate by owning guns, which are often seen as symbols of power and...

War drives innovation. Weapons systems that were cutting edge at the beginning of a great power war often are obsolete by the end because the enemy learns how to counter them. A little-appreciated challenge of the Ukraine war is that it is making many of the United States’ best weapons systems obsolete. As a result, the next president and Congress need to do a major push in defense weapons innovation. For example, according to a confidential Ukrainian weapons assessment that was leaked to the Washington Post and summarized by Yahoo news:The assessment said that Ukraine stopped using the Excalibur shells...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday appeared to back allowing Ukraine to use American-provided weapons to strike Russia or Russian-controlled territory. One reporter asked Johnson about a House Intelligence Committee letter calling on the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with American-supplied weapons. The letter stipulates that this would allow Ukraine to strike “Russian-controlled territory” as well as Russian territory and represents a significant escalation in America’s seemingly endless proxy war against Russia.

Harrowing video captured the moment gang members with automatic weapons opened fire in a south Florida neighborhood in what police say was a targeted attack that left locals ducking for cover in the middle of the night. Footage from a neighbor’s security camera shows a group with weapons standing on a residential street in Miami Garden just after midnight Wednesday beginning to shoot as a silver Nissan approaches. At least three hooded figures can be seen crouching on the ground waiting to ambush the approaching car — then rapidly firing at the vehicle as it drives past. Neighbors said they...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning by train, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and promising that “assistance is now on the way” after Congress passed the $95 billion foreign aid package in April. Blinken is in Kyiv to “highlight the United States’ enduring support for Ukraine”, the State Department said on Tuesday, after the Secretary of State arrived in the country by overnight train, a necessity for foreign diplomatic visits as flying directly to Ukraine remains impossible. The two-day trip is the first by an American government figure since Congress passed the foreign...