Free Republic

It hasn't made much noise worldwide, but Iran's rapidly deteriorating relationships with several African countries is huge news across the continent. On February 16, the Nigerian Federal High Court in Lagos began the prosecution of an alleged member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Azim Aghajani, and a Nigerian associate, Usman Abbas Jega. They are accused of arms smuggling. This video link is in Arabic, but is very self-explanatory. It is of the opening day of the court proceedings.The story is a classic, just one of many on the Dark Continent nowadays: In late October 2010, Nigerian intelligence officials...

NEW DELHI, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indian Border Security Force (BSF) troopers were put on high alert Sunday evening along the India- Pakistan international border after a massive blast left over 45 people dead and over 70 others injured at Wagah border check point in Pakistan, said local media. The Indo-Asian News Service quoted BSF officials at Attari border next to Wagah in Punjab as saying the blast, triggered by an alleged suicide bomber, was heard at a distance of nearly two km. The blast, according to information obtained by the BSF, occurred close to the place where the retreat...

US tells India, drop dead March 28, 2005 A friend, usually upbeat about India-US relations, sent me an angry mail over the weekend after President George Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the evening of March 25 to inform him that the US had decided to supply F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview to The Washington Post, "dismissed concerns" about the fallout of the American decision. The mail reads: "lovely easter gift to india from the us. moral: proliferate nukes, threaten us interests everywhere, be terror hub, and get rewarded...

The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama's administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "chickens**t," yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran - the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel. Senior US and Arab officials were cited by the Wall Street Journal saying that in recent months, America and Iran have grown closer through cooperation against their "common enemy", the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over a shared interest in "stability" in Iraq and Afghanistan. American officials revealed...

(CNSNews.com) -- As U.S. Marines withdraw from Operation Enduring Freedom (the Afghanistan war), CNSNews.com's database on casualties shows that 418 Marines gave their lives in the conflict and that 92% of those casualties, 385 deaths, occurred since President Barack Obama took office in 2009. “U.S. Marines and service members from the United Kingdom left Regional Command Southwest in Afghanistan’s Helmand province today, turning their facilities over to the Afghan security forces,” reported the Department of Defense on Oct. 27. “We lift off confident in the Afghans’ ability to secure the region,” said Army Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, commander of the...

Afghanistan: President Obama's abrupt order to withdraw U.S. Marines from Helmand province with zero fanfare was an ill-fitting exit for U.S. forces after 13 years of sacrifice in the war's bloodiest theater. Is this the thanks they get? No public acknowledgment from the White House. No official statements. No praise for extraordinary dedication or heroism. No proclamations of valor. And certainly nothing about victory. Just a surprise order to abandon the two largest and most dangerous outposts of America's longest war, Camp Leatherneck and British-led Camp Bastion, side-by-side bases that at one time housed 40,000. The order came so fast...

There are several debates when it comes to Barack Obama. One has to do with whether he is more Marxist or more Muslim. The answer may involve his usage of one to promote the elevation of the other ... Though Brzezinski rightly expressed concerns that the ‘Arab Spring’ could turn into the ‘Arab Winter’, he essentially advocated a repeat of his 1979 Afghanistan strategy in Libya ... After Gadhafi was overthrown, four Americans were murdered in Benghazi and the U.S. abandoned its embassy in Tripoli. Those of us with much less worldly experience knew it was a bad idea. How...

President Barack Obama marked a milestone Sunday on the way to one of the most important, controversial, and riskiest promises of his presidency: winding down the American-led coalition's combat role in Afghanistan in preparation for ending the long war there next year. American and British combat operations formally came to an end in Helmand Province, one of the bloodiest theaters in the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and a primary focus of Obama's 2010 surge of tens of thousands of American reinforcements charged with beating back the revitalized insurgency. But there were no White House statements issued Sunday to commemorate...

Elite Army Green Berets are knocking the performance of the Afghan National Army, telling war tales of its soldiers hiding and quitting the fight.The Green Beret criticisms, contained in a U.S. Central Command “friendly fire” investigative file, provide a window into the flaws of a national army more than a decade in the making.The Special Forces soldiers gave poor marks to the institution that is supposed to keep Afghanistan’s democratically elected governments in power. The security force must rebuff an expected Taliban offensive, on its own, once all American troops leave after 2016.The soldiers gave statements to investigators after going...

The last US Marines unit and final British combat troops in Afghanistan have officially ended their operations by transferring two crucial military bases to the Afghan military. The American and British flags were lowered and folded up for the final time at the regional headquarters of the international military at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan. US Marines, British and Afghan soldiers formed a guard of honour, saluting as the national anthems of all three countries were played over a loudspeaker, 13 years after foreign troops intervened in the country to topple the Taliban.

The U.S. military learned the hard way not to interfere with Afghanistan’s thriving production of poppies, the colorful flowers that are the source of opium and, by extension, heroin. Now we know the cost of that lesson—a cool $7.6 billion. On Oct. 14, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction—a.k.a., SIGAR—alerted the Defense, State and Justice Departments to this latest dollar figure for poppy-elimination efforts. And here’s SIGAR’s kicker. Despite the nearly $8 billion America has spent on eradication efforts, today the Afghan opium trade is booming. At 400,000 acres, the poppy crop in 2013 was the biggest ever.

Cultivation of the illegal poppy plant in Afghanistan has reached an “all-time high” following a $7.6 billion counternarcotics campaign paid for by the United States, according to government oversight investigators.

The last week of September marks the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980. Formal ceremonies for Sacred Defense Week include a nationwide parade, war remembrance gatherings and—of the most interest to War Is Boring—theatrical unveiling events for new weaponry. This year Iranian authorities extended the weapons unveilings into the first week of October—national police week in Iran—and then a few days more. The extensive show of military might came amid the growing threat of Sunni militia groups inside Iran. Tehran is eager to project an image of strength. But that doesn’t mean all of this new weaponry...

An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious “accidents” in Hezbollah-controlled precincts proved, as one Israeli official wryly remarked, that those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons are in a very unsafe place.” With the Party of God’s overland supply route through Syria choked off by the 22-month-long uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Israel virtually in total control of the maritime route, Hezbollah’s stockpile is being systematically degraded.Yet the arsenal of Iran’s other regional proxy force, Hamas,...

Adam Neuman left the classroom in Michigan to serve in the army in Afghanistan. Michigan high school social studies teacher Adam Neuman was surprised when he saw the $80 deduction on his paycheck from the Brighton Public School District. Then, he was angry. The U.S. Army veteran, who served one tour in Afghanistan, had opted out of the Brighton Education Association and parent organization, the Michigan Education Association, in August, as was his right under the state's 2012 law. He knew he wasn't subject to dues withholding, yet the itemized stub showed the deduction. “I don’t feel that they should...

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants German troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2016, fearing Afghan security forces will not be ready to take over by then, according to a report on Sunday. News weekly Der Spiegel reported that Merkel told a parliamentary committee that she doubted the Afghan army and police would be ready to take over by the time the final German troops are slated to withdraw. She said the complete withdrawal in 2011 of US troops from Iraq, which is now engulfed in Islamist violence, served as a cautionary tale and wanted to talk to Washington about an extension...

Here we go. It looks like Barack Obama is getting ready to double cross us again. According to a report on the site militarycorruption.com Obama is waiting until after the mid-term election to declare the traitor Bowe Bergdahl a Prisoner of War. This designation would change him from a traitor who should be executed to a “hero” POW who is eligible for back pay, a promotion and an honorable discharge which will entitle Bergdahl to a variety of benefits that have been designed for genuine heroes. In spite of the mountain of evidence proving he is a deserter, Militarycorruption.com has...

Obama simply does not get it or refuses to do so. His failure puts us closer to a nuclear cataclysm with every passing day The President’s lack of attention and indifference to years of intelligence reports and analysis is leading to a potential horror in which Iran fulfills its quest to make its own nuclear weapons. It already has the missile capacity to deliver them throughout the Middle East and to Europe. On October 6th Secretary of State John Kerry received a letter signed by 354 members of the House of Representatives that said in part “We are concerned that...

Sixteen military transport planes bought by the United States government for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of nearly $500 million were recently destroyed by the Afghan military and sold for scrap parts at around six cents per pound, prompting a government inquiry to determine why millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on the ill-fated program. The Department of Defense purchased for the AAF a total of 20 Italian-made G222 military transport planes at a cost of $486 million. However, the fleet was grounded in March 2013 “after sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems” were discovered,...

Veteran Neglect: A Navy and Marine Corps veteran asks a House panel why an administration that says it leaves no one behind has let a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder sit in a Mexican jail for six months. From the famous "latte salute" to the Marine holding the presidential umbrella, President Obama's respect for our men in uniform has been open to question. Unless, of course, they desert their post in Afghanistan to try to join the Taliban, like Bowe Bergdahl. Then you have the parents to the White House and trade the Taliban general staff to obtain their release....