Free Republic

Poet Sunni Patterson is one of New Orleans’ most beloved artists. She has performed in nearly every venue in the city, toured the US, and frequently appears on television and radio, from Democracy Now to Def Poetry Jam. When she performs her poems in local venues, half the crowd recites the words along with her. But, like many who grew up here, she was forced to move away from the city she loves. She left as part of a wave of displacement that began with Katrina and still continues to this day. While hers is just one story, it is...

Latin Mass at the National Shrine in April First such Mass at the shrine in nearly 45 years If you haven't yet settled on a way to mark the fifth anniversary of the pontificate Benedict XVI, and if you're in the Washington, D.C., area, you may want to check this out. The Paulus Institute, whose raison d'être is "for the propagation of sacred liturgy," announced today "the fifth anniversary of inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI will be commemorated in the Great Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C. by a Pontifical Solemn...

Li'l Beaver sez: "Today is the DUmmie FUnnies' FIFTH ANNIVERSARY! Ask me anything!" Yes, boys and girls, it was five years ago TODAY that PJ-Comix started the DUmmie FUnnies as its own stand-alone feature on Free Republic! Since then, the DUFUs have grown to amass the LARGEST ping list on FR--1,037 pingees!--and have spawned a DUmmie FUnnies blog on Blogspot. And what a FUn ride it's been! We started by satirizing just the DUmmies of Democratic Underground, but PJ has expanded our horizons to take in the KOmmies of Daily Kos and the HUffies of Huffington Post. The Looney Left...

I guess I’ve been stuck inside the government’s ass for 5 years and just fell out because, before today, I’d never heard of Iowahawk. Then this popped into my e-mail inbox (without attribution, of course): "It's in the way you dress. The way you boogie down. The way you sign your unemployment check. You're a man who likes to do things your own way. And on those special odd-numbered Saturdays when driving is permitted, you want it in your car. It's that special feeling of a zero-emissions wind at your back and a road ahead meandering with possibilities. The kind...

It was a little over five years ago, on May 1, 2003, that President George W. Bush was set to speak aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was assumed the president would arrive on the aircraft carrier in the way a president arrives on an aircraft carrier -- via helicopter. Instead, the president of the United States, who in the 1970s flew fighter planes in the Texas Air Guard, entered via an SB-3B Viking, which he flew with two other pilots, leaving the landing -- one of the most dangerous feats in aviation, akin to parking a car at a...

5 years on, Iraq as an ally?Posted By Uncle Jimbo One of the themes that Pete Hegseth has been pointing out is that while Iraqis have killed many US service members, Iraq is not our enemy. As a matter of fact we need to start looking at them as a developing ally. The left, and far too many who have drunk the poison being published and broadcast, focus on the casualties in Iraq and the fact that we have been there for 5 years as the salient facts. Sadly no, those factors certainly matter but they fail to take a...

It's just a few days past the fifth anniversary of one of the most magnificent accomplishments of combat arms ever in the history of the US military. Yet I could not find one mention of it anywheres in the media, focused as they were on the antics of Hillary, Obama, and the rest of the Dems failing in their attempts to pose one semi-intelligent question to Gen. Petreus, or shedding crocodile tears over the 4000+ American heroes who have made the supremee sacrifice in Iraq. I have excerpted for you below a few paragraphs from the great book by David...

Five years after the initial invasion of Iraq, Americans wonder where we are. Iraq is like no other conflict in American history. It is arguably no longer a war, but a low-level insurgency. We are not fighting a country, but a transnational conspiracy that operates more like an international fast-food franchise than a military force. In this conflict, there will be no "D" Day or signing of a peace treaty. What is victory? It is easy to take for granted the fact that there has not been another attack on American soil since 9/11 – how do you show progress...

How did I get the Iraq war so wrong? I didn't Christopher Hitchens | March 20, 2008 [Snip} AN anniversary of a war is in many ways the least useful occasion on which to take stock of something like the Anglo-American intervention in Iraq, if only because any such formal observance involves the assumption that a) this is, in fact, a war and b) it is by that definition an exception from the rest of our engagement with that country and that region. We were never, if we are honest with ourselves, "lied into war". We became steadily more aware...

3/24/2008 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Hundreds of Kirkuk Air Base Airmen commemorated the fifth year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom by honoring the 42 Airmen who gave their lives supporting the war on terrorism March 20 here. The ceremony included a 21-gun salute, a flag-folding ceremony performed by the base honor guard, and ended with a bag pipe performance of taps and "Amazing Grace." Members of the 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron also set up a memorial in-front of the formation to honor the sacrifices of two Airmen from the 727th EACS who died during combat operations...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday it was "a sober moment" as the U.S. death toll in Iraq climbed to 4,000. President Bush received a lengthy update on the war and aides said he was likely to embrace recommendations for a pause in troop withdrawals beyond those already scheduled. Bush was to participate in a two-hour conference by secure video hookup with Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Petraeus and Crocker are due to testify on Capitol Hill on April 8-9. Patraeus is expected recommend no additional troop...

For the first time in a long time, success looks like a realistic goal Five years later, the debate over the Iraq war rages as hot as when it began. We have never ceased looking over our shoulders. We have attempted to fight our way forward with our eyes fixed backward. Mired in these old arguments, it becomes impossible to see anything new. Just last week for example, the Pentagon released a study of 600,000 captured Iraqi documents. These documents detailed Saddam Hussein’s long history of support for Islamic terrorist groups, including Egyptian Islamic Jihad — which merged into al-Qaeda...

Friday, March 21, 2008 Happy Liberation Day, Iraq Exclusive: Melanie Morgan pounds 'peace' protesters whose violence knows no end By Melanie Morgan I headed to Berkeley first thing Wednesday morning. Thousands of anti-war agitators promised to shut down cities on this anniversary of America's campaign to liberate Iraq and fight radical Muslims who want to cut our throats here at home. I was pleased to see a strong presence of Berkeley police standing in front of the Marine recruiting center that "peace" activists have attacked at the urging of the Berkeley City Council. I would have been happier if U.S....

THE US opened its war on Iraq with a pre-dawn missile barrage at the Iraqi leadership yesterday but apparently failed to kill Saddam Hussein, whose image later appeared on television to accuse President George W. Bush of a "shameful crime". It was not clear if the less-than-10-minute address broadcast by his son Uday's Youth television was live or pre-recorded. The assassination attacks in Baghdad, targeting Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, signalled the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, described by Mr Bush in a televised address from the Oval Office as a "broad and concerted campaign". As Iraq claimed...

Iraq Five Years On   By Nile Gardiner The Heritage Foundation | Friday, March 21, 2008 On the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the United States has proved its critics wrong--again. The U.S.-led surge has been a remarkable success, and the fledgling democracy is no longer on the path to civil war. The ballot box and the rule of law are now replacing terrorism, fear, and intimidation as the norm. For historians looking for evidence of American decline, this progress in Iraq must be a huge disappointment. The world needs stronger U.S. leadership and is a far...

Judging by the way much of the Western media is dealing with the Iraq War's fifth anniversary, we're still fighting the acrimonious debates of 2002 and early 2003. Focusing on the past, however, may prevent us from understanding what's happening in Iraq today and its effect on the broader region. The war had three objectives: * To dismantle the regime of terror created by Saddam Hussein and his Tikriti clan. * To restore to the Iraqi people the power that the Tikritis had usurped. * To help Iraqis build a new system that might, in time, become a model for...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Deputy Secretary England, thanks for the introduction. One boss may not be here, but the other one is. (Laughter.) I appreciate your kind words. I'm pleased to be back here with the men and women of the Defense Department. On this day in 2003, the United States began Operation Iraqi Freedom. As the campaign unfolded, tens and thousands of our troops poured across the Iraqi border to liberate the Iraqi people and remove a regime that threatened free nations. Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth...

When Moqtada al-Sadr extended his cease-fire in Iraq last month, many wondered what he had in mind. Did he intend to bide his time, purge his movement of dissenters, or simply withdraw from public life to study Islam in Iran? Almost two weeks ago, Sadr himself provided an answer. He failed: “I have failed to liberate Iraq, and transform its society into an Islamic society.” – Moqtada al-Sadr, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, March 8, 2008Moqtada al-Sadr — the radical cleric dubbed “The Most Dangerous Man in Iraq” by a Newsweek cover story in December 2006 — has just unilaterally extended...

ON the fifth anniversary of our cam paign to remove Saddam Hussein's monstrous regime from power, it's hard not to despair - not because of the situation in Iraq, which has improved remarkably, but because so few American politicians in either party appear to have drawn the right lessons from our experience. For the record, I still believe that deposing Saddam was justified and useful. He was a Hitler, and he was our enemy. But I'm still reeling from the snotty incompetence with which the Bush administration acted. Above all, I'm ashamed that I trusted President Bush and his circle...

VIDEO: Local (Everett) Iraqis Support War, Hope For IraqIraqis living in Everett see the five-year anniversary of the war as a time to celebrate the future of their country. Related Video: EXTENDED INTERVIEW: Local Iraqi man Ali Al-Faham explains support