Free Republic

WASHINGTON — On April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York, George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. He and the members of both houses of Congress then assembled in the unfinished Senate chamber, where Washington took less than 20 minutes to deliver the first inaugural address. Precisely 225 years later — at the same time of day — the 44th president of the United States wandered into the Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House for a surreal 48-minute exchange with members of the media. The difference between those...

The 142nd National Rifle Association Annual Meeting is roaring into Houston for four days of seminars, rallies, prayer breakfasts and country music jam sessions, starting Thursday. The speaker lineup would make any Fox News junkie's heart skip a beat with appearances by conservative politicos and pundits ranging from to Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum to Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Hell, even Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame will be on hand to sign copies of his new novel. And yes, don't worry . . . The Nuge will be there in all his Cat Scratch Fever glory for a scheduled...

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote "The Art of War." In it, the Chinese strategist postulated: "One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. ... One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated." Two millenniums later, Prussian military theorist Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz wrote a detailed exposition on the principles of warfare. His book "On War" -- published after his death in 1831 -- posits, inter alia, that inadequate, incomplete or incorrect intelligence will inevitably contribute to the "fog of war" and lead...

WASHINGTON — More than 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote "The Art of War." In it, the Chinese strategist postulated: "One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. ... One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated." Two millenniums later, Prussian military theorist Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz wrote a detailed exposition on the principles of warfare. His book "On War" — published after his death in 1831 — posits, inter alia, that inadequate, incomplete or incorrect intelligence will inevitably contribute to the "fog of war" and lead...

WASHINGTON -- We don't know why two bombs were set near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 170 others Monday, April 15. In an era of instant information, a 24/7 news cycle, ubiquitous social media, countless smartphones and tens of thousands of government security cameras in metropolitan areas, our FBI has called for the public to help find and catch those who carried out this terror attack. That the perpetrators were not immediately identified and taken into custody is apparently frustrating to many of our countrymen. It shouldn't be. Just minutes after the...

WASHINGTON — Ten years ago this weekend, our Fox News team was racing north from Baghdad to Tikrit with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. They knew what needed to be done and had a plan for doing it, and all Griff Jenkins and I had to do was cover it and stay out of the way... A decade ago, all I had to do was be in the right place at the right time, get good footage during a gunfight, prepare a report, interview some eyewitness participants, hook up our tiny satellite transceiver, dial up Fox News in New York...

WASHINGTON — On Sunday, June 25, 1950, the Korean People's Army attacked across the 38th parallel, captured Seoul — capital of the Republic of Korea — and began driving south. The battered South Korean army and their U.S. military advisers quickly were pushed into the "Pusan Perimeter" on the southern tip of the peninsula — and U.S. President Harry Truman took the case to the United Nations Security Council. American leadership and the absence of the Soviet ambassador resulted in swift passage of Security Council Resolution 84. The measure — perhaps the last time in history that the U.N. acted...

WASHINGTON — On the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division distributed a one-page "Message to All Hands." It was a succinct warning to those going into battle about what to expect from the enemy and his expectations for them. His instructions and encouragement on deportment, skill, courage and compassion harkened back to Shakespeare's rendition of Henry V on St. Crispin's Day and Eisenhower's guidance to his troops going ashore at Normandy. The close, an admonition paraphrasing Roman General Lucius Sulla: "Demonstrate to the world there is 'No better friend, no worse enemy' than...

WASHINGTON — It's the question asked by Gold Star families — the loved ones of our fallen — when I meet them at funerals or public events. It is spoken quietly by the spouses of grievously wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines when I visit military and veterans hospitals. And it's in the correspondence I receive from parents and friends of those who have left something on the battlefield: "Was it worth it?" A decade ago this week, when Operation Iraqi Freedom began, this wasn't a question posed to our Fox News team. While cameras in Baghdad captured the...

WASHINGTON — Some holidays are unforgettable. If I sit down and think about it, I can recall where and with whom I celebrated nearly every Christmas of my life. That's not the case with St. Patrick's Day — an inexcusable lapse, given my maternal Irish heritage. But wait! There is one St. Paddy's Day that springs instantly to mind. It was exactly a decade ago, and I vividly remember it, for I was being chafed and chided by scores of old friends for how badly I had embarrassed myself — on live television. It had nothing to do with Guinness...

WASHINGTON — In my New York Times best-seller "Heroes Proved," the president of the United States orders the execution of an American citizen in the United States by using precision munitions fired from a remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA — incorrectly referred to by our media as a drone. When the book came out last year, some critics derided the idea of a U.S. president's issuing an executive order to kill Americans in our homeland as "over the top" and "unthinkable." One even said the idea was "unfathomable." But thanks to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., we now know the Obama...

WASHINGTON — Last year, the Obama administration announced to the world that it was planning to pursue a new Asia/Pacific-oriented national security strategy. Since then, North Korea has countered with a strategy of its own. In December, Pyongyang successfully launched a multistage intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a warhead-sized payload to the U.S. mainland. On Feb. 12, the North Koreans tested an improved-design nuclear weapon. After the test, Pyongyang announced that despite tightened United Nations sanctions that theoretically went into force last month, its latest nuclear test bolstered its defenses against U.S. "hostility." In a lengthy broadcast on the...

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — On Tuesday evening, Feb. 12, a capacity crowd filled a replica of the White House East Room for a presentation at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum. After that, they stood in line to buy autographed copies of my latest New York Times best-seller, "Heroes Proved." All of them heard: "Lyndon Johnson sent my brother and me to war in Vietnam. In his first address to our nation as president, Richard Nixon promised to bring us home. We're alive today because he kept his word." After the event, I listened to a rerun of our current...

TIBERIAS, Israel — Atop the Golan Heights, there are thousands of fruit trees, vineyards, acres of wheat, vegetables, herds of cattle and a half-million or more land mines. The livestock and produce were brought here and cultivated by Israeli citizen-soldiers — people who beat their swords into plowshares to wrest farmland from a battlefield. The land mines were planted by the Syrian army. The Golan plateau is an object lesson for American policymakers who believe that the Israelis need only trade a little more land in exchange for peace. It just isn't so. While we were en route to the...

JERUSALEM — Until Jan. 30, I was working on a story about reaction here in Israel to the Obama administration's decision to provide advanced F-16 aircraft to Egypt. All that changed early Wednesday, when I received a call from an Israeli friend who told me: "Last night, the (Israeli air force) carried out a raid on a weapons convoy in Syria." He said the trucks were en route to Lebanon, making a "delivery of arms to Hezbollah," and "all aircraft returned safely." He then added, "Let's see how long it takes for us to be condemned by the 'friends of...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is changing the guard. Minutes after the president retook the oath of office, he formally submitted nominations for his new secretary of state, secretary of defense and CIA director. Two days later, remnants of red, white and blue inaugural bunting, bleachers and security fences were still up at the U.S. Capitol and along Pennsylvania Avenue when Congress came back to "work." Temporary barricades, snow fence, partially disassembled Jumbotrons and hundreds of miles of cables and wires — the detritus of "the longest inaugural parade in history" — didn't deter our elected representatives from "investigating" the...

CLARK COUNTY, Nev. — Official Washington has the collective attention span of a fruit fly. This condition is exacerbated by the Obama administration's proclivity for declaring selective events and issues to be crises that require immediate action. The problem is aggravated because the loyal opposition is in nearly total disarray, and few in the so-called mainstream media have any idea what they are talking about. That's the summary assessment of many attending the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show here in Harry Reid's Nevada. Note to editors and broadcast producers: The SHOT Show isn't a gun show. Nobody here can...

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.WASHINGTON — Full disclosure right upfront: I'm a proud life member of the National Rifle Association. I am on the NRA's board of directors and serve as chairman of the organization's Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee. I have owned and used firearms most of my life, and I can read. Unlike some in Washington, I don't believe that the 27 words above — the Second Amendment of our Constitution — have anything to do...

Lt. Col Oliver North (ret.) held nothing back this morning with Brian Wilson and Breitbart News' Larry O'Connor on WMAL's Mornings on the Mall. When asked his opinion of the appointment of Sen. Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense North called Hagel a "backer of Hamas and Hezbollah" and that he was an "Israeli phobe."

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — It seemed like a good idea at the time. After Christmas, my wife, Betsy, and I planned to head south to this lovely barrier island in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Our plan included celebrating New Year's quietly with as many of our kids, their kids and our friends as possible and then returning to Virginia. It was supposed to be the antithesis of Times Square. Like so many of the best-laid plans of mice and men, it didn't turn out quite as expected. Only six of our grandchildren made the trek south, because so many of...