Free Republic

Please don't leave before the job is done. BAGHDAD--There is no more important international issue today than the need to defeat the curse of terrorism. And as the first democratically elected president of Iraq, I have a responsibility to ensure that the world's youngest democracy survives the inherently difficult transition from totalitarianism to pluralism. A transformation of the Iraqi state and Iraqi society is impossible without a sustained commitment of soldiers from the United States and other democracies. Americans should be proud of what its soldiers have achieved. The presence of foreign forces has prevented a renewed civil war in...

In a selfish and unprofessional move, Kanye West used a Red Cross benefit to benefit his own personal platform Friday night during the NBC Hurricane Katrina Relief program. West's comments were later cut from the program when aired on the West Coast airing. NBC has issued a statement denouncing West's comments. The American Red Cross has also issued a statement. Juicee News has found a video of Kanye West during his rant. [West is also scheduled to speak at another fundraiser next week] In a disgusting display, West strayed from his prepared script to offer an overflow of hatred from...

...While hundreds of thousands of people have been dislocated by Hurricane Katrina, the images that have filled the television screens have been mainly of black Americans -- grieving, suffering, in some cases looting and desperately trying to leave New Orleans. Along with the intimate tales of family drama and survival being played out Thursday, there was no escaping that race had become a subtext to the unfolding drama of the hurricane's aftermath. "I thought we were going to die out there," Bernadette Washington said. "We had to sleep on the ground. Use the bathroom in front of each other. Laying...

Hollywood star GEORGE CLOONEY has slammed modern broadcast journalism, because he fears viewers are fed lies they want to hear instead of "a common truth". The OCEAN'S TWELVE heart-throb is amazed by how standards in newsrooms have regressed, despite the ever-growing array of channels, and insists moral standards leave much to be desired. He recalls, "When I was growing up there were three networks and basically the same information. "Now, because we've fractioned into little pieces, you go look for the things that reinforce what you already believe to be fact and don't get a common truth."

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war. Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an...

Iraq: The unseen war The grim reality of Iraq rarely appears in the American press. This photo gallery reveals the war's horrible human toll. Editor's note: The following photo gallery contains graphic and shocking images of death and devastation in Iraq. Aug. 23, 2005 This is a war the Bush administration does not want Americans to see. From the beginning, the U.S. government has attempted to censor information about the Iraq war, prohibiting photographs of the coffins of U.S. troops returning home and refusing as a matter of policy to keep track of the number of Iraqis who have been...