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A veteran laments the deletion and disorganization of records from Iraq and Afghanistan. I often wonder what people will say about the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan decades from now. What I will tell my children when they are able to understand the answers to questions about what happened “over there.” I am afraid I will forget. As every day passes, I struggle more and more to remember all the names of the soldiers in my platoon, the hard-to-pronounce places we fought, the day-to-day things we did during my two year-long combat tours in Iraq. But what worries me most...

Newly declassified documents confirm Moscow always knew to play the American left like a fiddle. President Trump recently authorized a mass declassification of documents relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Among the material subsequently released, one document that instantly grabbed headlines was a December 1966 FBI memo reporting the reaction of Soviet and Communist Party USA officials to the Kennedy shooting. The document was headlined in (among other publications) the New York Post, which, in turn, was flagged at the top of the Drudge Report, which attracted a lot of readers. Old JFK conspiracy...

Okay. The headline is a little premature. But it could happen. Nicholas Black Elk (c.1863-1950) was an Oglala Lakota medicine man, mystic, and Catholic catechist (a member of the laity who assists priests and nuns by teaching the faith to children and to adult potential converts). It has been estimated that Black Elk was responsible for bringing approximately 400 Lakota into the Catholic Church. His commitment to his newfound faith (he converted in middle age), his exemplary life, and his attachment to those aspects of traditional Lakota spirituality that did conflict with Catholic doctrine or practice make him an interesting...

The researchers compiling the U.S. Army’s accounts of Iraq and Afghanistan have an unprecedented—and overwhelming—volume of material to work through. When Major Spencer Williams was ordered to “shut down shop and move out” of Afghanistan in 2005, he closed his final message from the field as he always did—quoting a long-dead historian. “Plant yourself not in Europe but in Iraq; it will become evident that half of the roads of the Old World lead to Aleppo, and half to Bagram.” Williams made up one-third of the U.S. Army’s historical field staff in Afghanistan—a team directed to cover the breadth of...

On May 13, 1981, shortly after 5:00 p.m., Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, the first Slavic pope ever, and — to the great dismay of the Soviet Union — an intensely anti-communist Pole from the heart of the Communist Bloc, slowly rode through St. Peter’s Square in his white Fiat “Popemobile.” Among the onlookers gathered for the pontiff’s weekly audience were Americans and Italians, Chinese and Germans, Latin Americans and Africans — Turks and Bulgarians. And observing intently from still further away were Russians posted at the Kremlin. Moscow had recently described this pope...

WAKARUSA, IND. More than 50 years after Gale Sayers, the “Kansas Comet,” inspired awe as a Jayhawk, he was honored in January in Topeka by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas as one of its Kansans of the Year. At a table near the front, Sayers was seated next to his wife, Ardythe, as a mesmerizing KU-produced tribute played. ************ But Ardie Sayers has come to believe its onset was years before that — possibly even as far back as when he returned to Kansas in a fund-raising capacity for a time in 2009. While she considers Sayers, 73,...

More than 300,000 workers are planning to walk out of their jobs in protest of President Trump on International Workers Day, according to a new report. The report by Buzzfeed News said that "350,000 service workers plan to strike on May 1, a traditional day for labor activism across the world, in the most direct attempt yet by organized labor to capture the energy from a resurgent wave of activism across the country since the election of Donald Trump." The Service Employees International Union, which endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president back in 2015, will be a large component of...

Imagine there’s no presidency, no deplorables too… Over the past few days I have asked a few friends what they think life is like for Hillary Clinton right now. Of course this is a hypothetical question, since they don’t know, but it is sort of an interesting idea to let your mind wander and wonder what life is like inside Casa Clinton; not just inside the actual house, but inside her actual head. Caution: we are entering an unsafe and scary space. Let’s start with the outside of the house. I’m sure it’s heavily guarded with Secret Service and private...

When the US/UK special relationship really WAS special: New £3million war museum opens telling how Britain and the U.S. worked together during the darkest days of the 20th Century American Air Museum based at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, looks at role of US air power It has 18 aircraft on display, including B-17 bomber used in WWII and supersonic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane The museum looks at conflicts in chronological order, beginning at 1918 and continuing on to the present day Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3495651/When-special-relationship-really-special-New-3million-war-museum-opens-telling-Britain-U-S-worked-darkest-days-20th-Century.html#ixzz437ANIZjh Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

How to stop Trump? That’s the collective mantra of the mass media. It’s a natural question to ask of a man curiously portrayed as some sort of Republican juggernaut, which he’s not. I sat in speechless befuddlement and amusement as I watched Fox News analysts on Saturday night marvel at a proclaimed political superman who corralled not even one-third of the South Carolina vote. Donald Trump is actually consistently drawing a lower percentage of Republican votes than Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are drawing Democrat votes. The very revealing reason, at least to anyone who understands math, is easy to...

Fred Cherry defied Communist torture and leftist stereotypes. Fred Cherry, the African American U.S. Air Force pilot who spent seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, has passed away at 87. With all due respect to Joe Louis, Fred Cherry was the real Brown Bomber.

In his weekly Angelus message Sunday, Pope Francis continued his reflections on the meaning of Christmas, reminding his hearers that on coming into the world Jesus was rejected, and that we too must make a choice whether or not to accept him. Speaking on the day's Gospel before a crowd in Saint Peter's Square, the Pope underscored the dramatic contrast between God's gift of love in the Incarnation, and man's failure to receive Him. "The gift of God's love is matched by the non-acceptance of men," Francis said. "The Word is the light, but men loved darkness; the Word came...

American hostages held in Iran will get up to $4m compensation each from the US government - 36 years after ordeal The former 1979 American hostages in Iran will get financial compensation after US lawmakers included a payment provision in spending legislation The men and women were taken hostage by militant Iranian student groups at the US embassy spending 444 days in captivity They will be given restitution of up to $4.4million each, or $10,000 for each day they were held There were 66 original captives in the Iran hostage crisis with 13 released in November 1979, and one was...

Every Obama event somehow has to offend Christians and Jews. Could Obama pull it off for Chanukah? Yes, he could. I already wrote about Susan Talve's bizarre pre-Menorah lighting rant at the White House Chanukah party. Then, not satisfied with having made a disgrace of the Chanukah ceremony, Susan Talve declared, "I stand here to light these lights to say no the darkness of Islamophobia and Homophobia and Transphobia." Talve babbled about insuring "justice for Palestinians" and began gleefully chanting, "Ins'Allah, Ins'Allah". Or "Allah Willing".

Another hideous person rises through the ranks of the Obama administration : Mr. Robert Malley. He is cut from the same cloth as many of those that Obama surrounds himself with. In other words, a person who hates America and sympathizes with our enemies. And now he is in charge of the administration's absurd, ridiculous, disingenuous, pathetic, uncommitted effort to combat ISIS. First a bit of back story. Malley was born in 1963 to parents who were communists, Islamist sympathizers, and Jew haters. His mother worked for the UN delegation of the National Liberation Front, an anti-American political party. His...

Maureen O'Hara died in her sleep at her home in Ireland today. She was 95 years old

Traces of blood discovered on ancient arrowheads in Guatemala prove the Maya took part in bloody ceremonies to communicate with their gods. Bloodletting ceremonies involved piercing the earlobes, tongues and even genitals of willing participants and using the spilled blood to 'feed' their deities. The arrows were collected from five sites in the central American region, including a temple at Zacpetén where it's thought bloodletting ceremonies took place around 500 years ago.

The UK Daily Mail is making big headlines (at the top of the Drudge Report page as I write) with its exclusive story purporting to prove that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was committed to war with Iraq at a time he was telling the British public that he was seeking a diplomatic solution. The email it cites came from “a batch of secret emails held on the private server of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton which U.S. courts have forced her to reveal.” I think the Daily Mail has buried the lead. For one thing, the secret memo...

To better advance their causes, liberals should follow these modest Ten Commandments to live the rather "progressive" lives that they advocate for the rest of us. The best way for liberals to advance their various causes would be to take a pledge to live the rather progressive lives that they advocate. Here are a modest Ten Commandments to lend them credibility in the eyes of the American people. For the entire list: http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/liberals-ten-commandments/

Gym instructor and two footballers are named as first victims of airshow jet crash... and police reveal at least ELEVEN people were killed as new photographs emerge showing cars engulfed in flame Fighter jet smashed into cars on busy road in front of thousands of horrified spectators at Shoreham Airshow At least 11 died, 14 were injured and the pilot, Andy Hill, has been left fighting for his life in critical condition Read the entire story at link and see photographs