Free Republic

David Frum’s dangerous argument is part of a larger effort to suggest that if China attacks democratically ruled Taiwan, helping Taiwan is not worth the risk of war with China.David Frum is a prominent member of the foreign policy priesthood, albeit an accidental one, and he continues to urge U.S. foreign policy errors in a new Atlantic article about China. “China Is a Paper Dragon” argues the Biden administration is unnecessarily concerned about the People’s Republic of China (PRC).Frum’s argument is part of a larger effort by high-profile pundits to suggest that if China attacks democratically ruled Taiwan, helping Taiwan...

It's a "media intifada," notes Gary Weiss, an old colleague and one of the world's top business investigative reporters. He is referring of course to the ongoing war in Gaza, where journalists working for American news outlets have, he says, “become part of the Hamas war machine... it’s high time to dig through the carnage that many of my colleagues from major U.S. media outlets are leaving behind... Since late July, I’ve conducted an in-depth look at the credibility of the media coverage, plus interviews with military experts and some journalists covering the war...“We’re talking about journalism that functions as...

President George W. Bush stood before the U.S. Capitol in 2005 and delivered an Inaugural Address in which he declared his utopian vision that the United States had a mission to change the world. He was wrong. History has now proved it. "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands," Bush said. "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." "So, it is the policy of the United States," he said, "to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions...

There is an assumption in America that new political leaders across the world campaigning against long-term incumbents or establishments must, naturally, share the full spectrum of western, liberal and democratic values cherished in Washington D.C.The premise is as dangerous as it is mistaken. Recent decades are scattered with “great western hopes” that have not only disappointed when they finally reached office - but even turned out worse than those they replaced, with civil unrest, rollbacks of human rights, and severe deterioration in the lives of minorities.There is Aung San Suu Kyi. Once named by TIME Magazine as one of the...

Wars often arise from uncertainty. When strong countries appear weak, truly weaker ones take risks they otherwise would not. Sloppy braggadocio and serial promises of restraint can trigger wars, too. Empty tough talk can needlessly egg on aggressors. But mouthing utopian bromides convinces bullies that their targets are too sophisticated to counter aggression. Sometimes announcing "a new peace process" without any ability to bring either novel concessions or pressures only raises false hopes -- and furor. Every new American president is tested to determine whether the United States can still protect friends such as Europe, Japan, South Korea and Israel....

As Russia presses on Ukraine and China escalates tensions with the Philippines, the United States is courting unnecessary risk. While our greatest risks still stem from a series of rising domestic radicalisms, the danger from beyond our borders won’t forever accommodate our turned eye. A decade plus, bipartisan-blessed era of inward focus has resulted in doubt domestically as to where our red lines really are. Not necessarily where our alliances and commitments stand on paper, but where they will stand in practice. Which foreign capitals are our divided citizenry willing to sacrifice for in 2021? What about after our next...

The Chinese side knows that wielding the same self-loathing ideas the ruling class teaches in American universities will hurt Americans most.It’s a cliché to claim every setback as the official end of unipolarity, but if there were ever to be a date for historians to mark the televised humiliation and official end of American hegemony, it would be the very public verbal slapping of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan by the Chinese ambassador on U.S. soil.The U.S. and China leveled sharp rebukes of each others’ policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of...

Vice President Kamala Harris has begun to take calls on behalf of President Joe Biden, raising questions about his ability to do the job of President. The White House published a readout yesterday entitled “Readout of Vice President Kamala Harris Call with President Emmanuel Macron of France.”It states:Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today with President Emmanuel Macron of France, and expressed her commitment to strengthening bilateral ties between the United States and France and to revitalizing the transatlantic alliance. Vice President Harris and President Macron agreed on the need for close bilateral and multilateral cooperation to address COVID-19, climate change,...

President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that the federal tax probe targeting his son Hunter Biden’s murky financial dealings is “Russian misinformation,” and called the reporter who asked for comment on the probe a “one horse pony.” As he walked off stage after a press conference in Wilmington, Del., Biden was asked by Fox News if he still believed The Post’s exclusive reporting on the contents of his son Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian misinformation,” in the wake of reports that some of those damaging emails were part of the federal probe. “Yes, yes, yes. God love you, man. You are...

Al-Shabaab does not pose a threat to America that cannot be handled more effectively by our global intelligence networks and ability to strike direct threats to our country.On Dec. 4, President Trump ordered most of the approximately 700 U.S. troops out of Somalia. The move wasn’t a full withdrawal, however, as the White House specified the forces will be moved to neighboring countries to continue targeting the al-Shabaab terror group. While addressing the tactical actions our troops would continue to perform in Africa, there was no mention of the strategic justification for our presence—because there is none. Al-Shabaab is unquestionably...

In an online column denouncing President Trump's "America First" policy that includes measures regarding Beijing, ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis did not disclose his affiliation with an organization that fosters international business deals with communist China. As coauthor with three other writers in a Nov. 23 Foreign Affairs column, Mattis did not mention that he works for the The Cohen Group consulting firm. Nor did he challenge China's tough talk against U.S. policies regarding Taiwan, nor the strict economic retaliation Beijing levied against Australia. Instead, Mattis criticized Trump administration policies toward Beijing. Such policies, touted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,...

In his first message to U.S. military forces, acting Pentagon chief Chris Miller said it's time to end America's wars in the Middle East... "Indeed, this fight has been long, our sacrifices have been enormous, and many are weary of war — I'm one of them — but this is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership to supporting role," Miller wrote in an early Saturday morning message to Department of Defense employees. "We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand for which our...

“The worst sight and the last place we visited were the cremation chambers at Dachau,” wrote American soldier Leon Morin on July 9, 1945, in a handwritten letter to his family. “… I think it is wors[e] than Buchenwald …” U.S. soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp Dachau on April 29, 1945. What the Americans discovered shocked their conscience. Some U.S. troops were so overwhelmed and enraged by the horrors of this death camp that they executed dozens of Nazi camp guards. Dachau was hell on earth. “Nothing you can put in words would adequately describe what I saw there...

"There is no... sound reason for the United States to continue sacrificing precious lives and treasure in a conflict not directly connected to our safety or other vital national interests." So said William Ruger about Afghanistan, our longest war. What makes this statement significant is that President Donald Trump has ordered a drawdown by mid-October of half of the 8,600 troops still in the country. And Ruger was just named U.S. ambassador to Kabul. The selection of Ruger to oversee the U.S. withdrawal came as Gen. Frank McKenzie of Central Command announced plans to cut the U.S. troop presence in...

n december 2018 China hawks in the Trump administration pushed a series of punitive measures in what some referred to internally, according to a new book by Bob Davis and Lingling Wei, as “Fuck China Week”. That was as nothing compared with what happened in the month of July 2020. In recent weeks America has imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials, including a member of the Politburo, for their part in atrocities against Uighurs in Xinjiang; added 11 Chinese companies to the Commerce Department’s blacklist, for complicity in those atrocities; declared China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea illegal;...

Is the United States, preoccupied with a pandemic and a depression created by that medical crisis, prepared for a collision with China over Beijing's claims to the rocks, reefs, and resources of the South China Sea? For that is what Mike Pompeo appeared to threaten this week. "The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire," thundered the secretary of state. "America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources ... and [we] reject any push to impose 'might makes right' in the South China...

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House...

While it may be too costly for Beijing to attack the United States directly, Beijing is getting its message out at relatively minimal cost through attacking U.S. allies like Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave his strongest response to Communist China this week after enduring months of bullying from Beijing. He let Beijing know loud and clear that Australia is “an open trading nation, but I’m never going to trade our values in response to coercion.”It all began back in April, when Australia led a draft resolution, which demanded the World Health Organization (WHO) conduct an “impartial, independent and...

If the United States doesn’t follow through to revoke Hong Kong’s special treatment, Beijing may be emboldened to take aggressive actions against Taiwan. May 22, 2020 will go down in history as an important milestone. On this day, Beijing announced it will impose a new national security law on Hong Kong, which will effectively end the “One Country, Two Systems” era.Beijing made the move at this week’s “Two Sessions,” annual legislative meetings of two organizations: the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). In the past, more than 5,000 delegates, representing the elites in China,...

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” King Lear enjoined, but this we must do to upend the wrath that has emanated from the most powerful foe America has faced. As terrible as the coronavirus crisis is, we must imagine a world ten or 20 years from now, in which the People’s Republic of China’s nominal gross domestic product is 50 percent larger than that of the United States.What power would an unconstrained China wield? What force of arms would they muster to intimidate and to control?If China’s actions in the coronavirus catastrophe offer any window into this...