Free Republic

As George Bush reflects on his legacy, an urgent question must be pressing in upon him each day. Will I leave here as the man who launched failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost thousands of U.S. dead, to no avail? Or can I yet enter history as the Churchillian statesman who used U.S. power to save America and Israel from the mortal threat of atomic weapons in the hands of the Iranian mullahs? Which legacy would Bush prefer? Or Cheney? As Americans await Bush's address announcing a "surge" of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq, we may...

Entering the weekend before his midterms, George Bush and his party appear fated to lose the House they have held for a dozen years. The Senate is on a knife's edge. The latest polls continue to show that by 52 percent to 37 percent Americans wish to see a Democratic takeover. Approval of Congress has never been lower. Americans think the nation is on the wrong track. Support for the war in Iraq has collapsed to a third of the nation. What went wrong? Certainly, on three traditional Republican issues – strong military, conservative judges and lower taxes – the...

Between Sept. 11, 2001, and his State of the Union Address in 2002, George W. Bush had America in the palm of his hand. But in that speech, Bush blew it. Singling out Iran, Iraq and North Korea as state sponsors of terror seeking weapons of mass destruction, Bush yoked them together in an "axis of evil" and issued this ultimatum: "I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's...

What a spectacle America at war presents to the world. A former president, red-faced, bawls his rage at Fox News' Chris Wallace, who had asked why he had not shut down bin Laden and Co. in the seven years he had to do it. The president of the United States declaims to a partisan audience in Alabama, "The Party of FDR and Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run." Is this how the great republic fights and wins its wars? America has taken on the aspect of France's Fourth Republic after the fall of Dien Bien Phu...

His name is Gustav Potthoff. Most days this quiet, dignified man with deformed feet can be found sitting in the small Attabury-Bakalar Air Museum in Columbus, Indiana.His father was a German sailor in WWI and held prisoner by the Dutch in what is now Indonesia. After the war his father married a Javanes woman and they had a son, Gustav.In 1941 a young Gustav joined the Netherlands Army as a technical mechanic, and by a quirk of fate, he was in Singapore when it surrendered to Japan.For the next four years Gus worked on the Burma-Thailand railroad, including at the...

Immigration & Foreign Affairs by Posted Is it possible that the House and Senate will agree on an immigration bill? For most of June, the answer seemed to be no. The House Republican leadership announced it would not appoint members of a conference committee to reconcile the border-security-only bill the House passed in December with the comprehensive (border-security-plus-guest-worker-plus-legalization) bill passed by the Senate in May. Instead, House Republicans would hold hearings around the country in August -- hearings expected to be forums for complaints about illegal immigration and demands that border control be strengthened before any legalization or guest-worker program...

Renewing the American Dream: The Real Rational Middle Ground on Immigration Reform By Mike Pence The Heritage Foundation May 23, 2006 Note (5/23/06): Earlier today, Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) presented an alternative proposal for immigration reform. As a courtesy to our readers, ACU is pleased to provide a transcript of the congressman's speech, legislation from which he will soon be introducing. I come before you today in the midst of a national debate over immigration reform. While I acknowledge that, as the New York Times stated Sunday, we are near the “end game” on immigration reform in the United States...

"I respect and admire the French, who have been a far greater nation than we shall ever be, that is, if greatness means anything loftier than money and bombs." — THOMAS FLEMING, "HARD RIGHT," MARCH 13, 2003 From the very beginning of the War on Terror, there has been dissent, and as the war has proceeded to Iraq, the dissent has grown more radical and more vociferous. Perhaps that was to be expected. But here is what never could have been: Some of the leading figures in this antiwar movement call themselves "conservatives." These conservatives are relatively few in number,...

In just two weeks, six retired U.S. Marine and Army generals have denounced the Pentagon planning for the war in Iraq and called for the resignation or firing of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who travels often to Iraq and supports the war, says that the generals mirror the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more. This is not a Cindy Sheehan moment. This is a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the U.S. armed forces by senior officers once responsible for carrying out the orders of...

"The road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting, yet it ends in danger and decline," railed President Bush in his State of the Union. Again and again, Bush returned to his theme. " America rejects the false comfort of isolationism ... "Isolationism would not only tie our hands in fighting enemies, it would keep us from helping our friends in desperate need ... "American leaders from Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy to Reagan rejected isolation and retreat." Why would a president use his State of the Union to lash out at a school of foreign policy thought...

That demagogues and agitators are exploiting those cartoons of Muhammad to advance a war of civilizations and expel Europeans from the Middle East seems undeniable. But that does not excuse the paralyzing stupidity of that Danish paper in running those cartoons – or the arrogant irresponsibility of European newspapers in plastering those cartoons all over their front pages. The storm first broke last September, when Jyllands-Posten published 12 caricatures of Muhammad, including a lampoon of the prophet with a terrorist bomb as a turban. In the Islamic faith, any depiction of the face of Muhammad is forbidden. The Danish paper...

KEY WEST More than 37 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.3 billion was hauled off a Navy frigate Friday, adding to a record year of seizures as part of a joint effort to stop drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific. The 75,000 pounds of white powder is from five separate seizures at sea between Aug. 31 and Sept. 26, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement. The largest cocaine discovery in the history of Coast Guard's East Coast operations was made Sept. 17 when a Coast Guard detachment from the frigate, the USS Curts, found...

US expats party through election night in Paris PARIS, Nov 2 (AFP) - The United States flag was flapping over Paris streets late Tuesday as US expats and French protestors gathered to watch the results of the presidential election beamed into the capital of Washington's most troublesome ally. Outside Harry's Bar, the favoured watering hole of Americans in Paris since 1911, some 300 people keen to mix politics with a party atmosphere watched as 30 French anti-war protestors demonstrated in the street demanding a US withdrawal from Iraq. The bar holds a traditional bar-room straw poll of passport carrying US...

Badnarik launches final TV ad blitz in 4 swing states WASHINGTON -- With the Bush-Kerry race too close to call, the Badnarik for President campaign has launched a final flurry of TV advertising aimed at disgruntled Republicans in four swing states. "Millions of fiscal conservatives have been left politically homeless by the GOP, so we're rolling out the Libertarian welcome mat," said Barbara Goushaw, campaign manager for Badnarik. "If George Bush thinks these people have no place to go, he's in for a big surprise." The TV spots, titled "Send a Message," are running in Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin and...

Badnarik TV ads target conservative voters WASHINGTON -- The Libertarian Party launches a TV advertising campaign on Thursday that could boot George Bush out of the White House by appealing for votes from disgruntled conservatives. "Michael Badnarik is going to bring his small-government message right into the living rooms of 96 million households who have a right to be angry at Bush," said Joseph Seehusen, the Libertarian Party's executive director. "This ad tells Republican voters that the best way to get the party's attention is to patronize the competition -- and that means voting Libertarian." The television ads, paid for...

“Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing,” wrote Rumsfeld a year ago. “Is our current situation such that ‘the harder we work, the behinder we get’?” We now have metrics to work with. A year ago, Gen. John Abizaid estimated there were 5,000 enemy fighters. After capturing and killing thousands, officials now estimate there are 20,000 enemy. A year ago, there were two dozen attacks every day on coalition forces. According to Kroll Security International, the number is now 70 a day. A year ago, U.S. troops had the run of the country and the...

"Nitwit pundits and Sunday morning television sages, with that faked look of thoughtfulness which is their trademark, talk about an exit strategy – as if it were just one more Mapquest printout. But any such exit strategy will lead us only on a short path to hell." So writes Tony Blankley, editorial editor at the Washington Times, adding, "The essential strategic element in war is to defeat the enemy's will to win, and accepting anything less than triumph in Iraq will catastrophically embolden the terrorists." Blankley raises valid and grave questions. He is saying that, no matter where one stood...

Good afternoon. My name is Michael Badnarik, and I'm seeking the Libertarian Party's nomination for president of the United States. As a Libertarian candidate I feel compelled to speak to the American people in every forum where my voice can be heard. Libertarian ideas are sound and consistent, but until the American people have HEARD our ideas, they have no chance of ADOPTING them. The students of Washington University are the future leaders our country. You have the power to choose which administration will lead this country. You also have the power to prevent other administrations from destroying it. That...

One of the reasons I was against our war with Iraq, and still am, is because I agree with something very wise that John Quincy Adams said in 1821. Referring to America, Adams said of our country: “She goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” In other words, applying what might be called the Adams Doctrine to Iraq, I hope for the best for Iraq. I hope Iraq WILL become free and independent, with liberty and justice...

The revelations that Iraqi prisoners have been abused and tortured have prompted the typical deep thinking by America's pundits. But, as usual, they are ignoring the central point: Atrocities and war go together like ham and eggs. When soldiers — American, Iraqi, or of any nation — go to war, they are transformed into different people. This is because of the nature of war. Battles aren't fought in the clean, antiseptic style of a John Wayne movie. In a real war, men's limbs are blown off, they see their insides pour out onto the ground, and they die in excruciating...