Free Republic

Five years ago, I wrote about the unknown Holocaust in Ukraine. I was shocked to receive a flood of mail from young Americans and Canadians of Ukrainian descent telling me that until they read my column, they knew nothing of the 1932-33 genocide in which Josef Stalin's Soviet regime murdered seven million Ukrainians and sent two million more to concentration camps. How, I wondered, could such historical amnesia afflict so many? For Jews and Armenians, the genocides their people suffered are vivid, living memories that influence their daily lives. Yet today, on the 70th anniversary of the destruction of a...

Saddam's symbols -- targets in psychological war By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD, April 10 (Reuters) - From the outset, it had all the trappings of an intensely personal affair. If the man himself proved elusive, the symbols of Saddam Hussein's hold over the people of Iraq were everywhere. As U.S. and British forces swept across the country they targeted statues and paintings of the Iraqi leader to show Iraqis his rule was over -- and they had nothing to fear. "For the population there is a broader recognition that this regime is coming to an end and will not return,"...

Stalin´s Death 50 Years Ago This Month: A "Little Purim" During this month marking 50 years since the death of the vicious tyrant Josef Stalin, theories again abound as to the cause of his demise. The New York Times reported ten days ago on a new book, entitled "Stalin's Last Crime," which brings new evidence to support an old theory that Stalin was poisoned. Another new book, however, puts the likely poisoning into historical perspective. Dr. Alex Rashin, author of newly-published "Why Didn't Stalin Murder All the Jews?," notes that Stalin collapsed into his fatal coma on March 1, 1953...

<p>Fifty years ago this month in Moscow, Josef Stalin died. He and his Red Army had been our allies (not formally but informally) in defeating Nazism and Fascism. Winston Churchill thought well of "old Joe" for a time. During the war American propaganda referred to his armies as "Our Heroic Soviet Allies," and President Roosevelt joshed that he was "Uncle Joe." Then we had a falling out with the mustachioed Georgian.</p>

A Wilmington newspaper is reporting that a top aide to Governor Mike Easley threatened loss of "...local projects dear to the New Hanover County Commissioners..." if "...they [the commissioners] were to win a lawsuit against the administration over money Gov. Mike Easley..." withheld from local governments to balance the budget. The Wilmington Star says that John Merritt, a Senior Advisor for Policy and Communications for Easley, went on to say, "They [commissioners] are like a son getting mad at his father, who's lost his job, for not paying his allowance. Now, they're saying they'll sue the dad. There's a likelihood...