Free Republic

Old Ironsides’ Now Ready for Virtual Touring 'Old Ironsides' hosts Medal of Honor recipientsAmerica’s oldest warship afloat is headed into dry dock next month at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, but Google Maps and the U.S. Navy have made it possible for everyone to digitally visit the USS Constitution. Just as Google made it possible to zip virtually up and down city streets almost anywhere in the world, it can now put you on and below deck of “Old Ironsides,” the still-commissioned Navy warship that made a name for itself in campaigns against the French, North African pirates and...

John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, appointed by George Washington, wrote to Jedidiah Morse Feb. 28, 1797 (the same year the Treaty of Tripoli was ratified), "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Adams, America's second President and the same one who signed and sent the Treaty of Tripoli to the Senate, just one year later delivered these words in a military address Oct. 11, 1798, "Our...

Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat newly elected to Congress, took his oath of office with his hand on the Quran, a copy of Islam's holy book once owned by the nation's third president. No one would have been more proud of the moment than Thomas Jefferson, who pointedly believed in religious freedom, not religious tolerance. Ellison, who was born in Detroit, converted to Islam in college. He is the first Muslim elected to Congress, an interesting footnote at a time the first female speaker of the House is installed. His decision to swear allegiance to his office, country and...

The American encounter with Islam began long before the "Middle East" existed as a geographical region, and before the United States existed as a nation. by Robert J. Allison When the Christian kingdoms of Castille and Aragon, the nucleus of what became Spain, united and conquered the Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella realized their goal of uniting Spain under Christian rule. They wanted to continue their holy war against Islam, chasing Muslims into North Africa. President Jefferson To wage this war, Ferdinand and Isabella needed money. Christopher Columbus's bold plan, to sail west and...

The revolutionary principles of 1776 - government derives its power from the consent of the governed; governments are instituted to protect our individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; these individual rights come from God - has not yet reached the salons of Europe. Washington understood how contrary these principles were to the thinking of Europe, and so he warned us to avoid entangling alliances. The regimes of Europe were not based upon principles, but power. Revolutions in France, Russia and Germany replaced old tyrants with new and worse tyrants - tyrants unrestrained by Christian conscience. The...

"America's Long Middle Eastern Romance," by Michael B. Oren (Week in Review, March 16), in suggesting an analogy between President Bush's confrontation with Saddam Hussein and the alleged one between Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary "pirates," leaves out some historical facts. Jefferson was not a foe of Algiers, but the initiator, together with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, of the Treaty of Peace and Amity signed at Algiers on Sept. 5, 1795. The article refers to the privateering practiced by the Barbary States as "piracy." Remember, however, that privateering was an internationally accepted practice at the time. Privateers had official...

President Bush made the issue crystal clear in his speech Monday to the people of the United States when he said: "Efforts to disarm the Iraq regime have failed again and again because we are not dealing with peaceful men. "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq's neighbors and against Iraq's people. "The regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East. It has a deep hatred...

<p>If diplomacy does not create a unified military front against Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the United States goes to war to disarm him, it won't be the nation's first solo expedition against terrorist regimes.</p> <p>Much of America's early military history was set against the background of fighting terrorist regimes without the no-shows from other nations. The terrorist regimes were located in the Mediterranean, and as part of a British colony, Americans saw the mother country begin the policy of paying tribute to the so-called Barbary nations there — Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.</p>