Free Republic

BLUEMONT, Va. — Four years ago, this annual Christmas column was written from Baquba, Iraq, while our Fox News "War Stories" team was embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division and special operations units operating against the Iranian-supported Mahdi Army in the outskirts of Baghdad. A year earlier, the Christmas 2006 column was written in Ramadi, Iraq, while we were embedded with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines in what was then the bloodiest place on the planet. And in 2005, this column originated with 3d Battalion, 7th Marines and the 2nd Brigade of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National...

WASHINGTON — They are coming home. For the first time since March 19, 2003, there are no U.S. combat or combat support troops in Iraq. There is still a contingent of U.S. Marines guarding the biggest American embassy in the world and the largest military attache's office at any diplomatic mission. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind — ally or enemy — that the war in Iraq is over. The only uncertainty now: Who won? Short answer: America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines — and the American people whose sons and daughters served in Iraq. Though...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Seventy years ago this week, Japanese Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida led an airborne strike force of 49 "Kate" bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 "Val" dive bombers and 43 "Zeke" fighters on the first wave of an attack on Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War II. At 9:45 that terrible Sunday morning, a second wave of 167 attack aircraft added to the devastation. By the time the surprise attack was over, 3,581 Americans were dead or wounded; the largest naval anchorage in the Pacific was littered with sunken and burning U.S. warships; the...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Our Fox News crew is here wrapping up our 100th "War Stories" documentary — with some of the "stars" of previous episodes. Though most of the Marines here are recent veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, their present focus is on the next trouble spots. Thanks to inept national security planning in Washington, there are more vulnerabilities today than there were just three years ago. At the top of the list: Iran. Few of the young Marines we meet here are old enough to remember what happened to the U.S. Embassy in...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Anyone who wonders what to be thankful for this holiday season need only visit a nearby military base. On the eve of Thanksgiving, our Fox News' "War Stories" team came to this sprawling Marine base south of our nation's capital to shoot interviews for an upcoming documentary. What we saw and heard inspired us all. Nearly all the Marines here have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or both theaters of this decadelong war. They know the true meaning of duty, honor and sacrifice. Many of them have lost comrades in arms on bloody battlefields...

JUPITER, Fla. — Not one of the old "frogmen" or young Navy SEALs who gathered this week at the nearby National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum for the annual Muster wants to see another war. Those who came here are veterans of combat spanning from World War II to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to numerous other unnamed fights around the world. Within their ranks are men — and their families — who know what it means to go in harm's way, often without any recognition or public acclaim. The widow of a slain SEAL put it this way:...

CLOVIS, Calif. — This little town not far from Fresno may be the perfect place to observe Veterans Day as our nation closes a decade of war. A quiet San Joaquin Valley community in the heart of our most populous state, Clovis has lost 10 of its sons — eight of them from local Buchanan High School — in Afghanistan and Iraq. Though the Defense Department apparently doesn't keep statistics on per capita losses for American communities, Clovis may be for this war what Bedford, Va., was for World War II. According to local records, 19 "Bedford Boys" —...

Tom Kilgannon, President of Freedom Alliance shared his thoughts recently touching on the organizations multi part mission: “… to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense.” Let me be timely here Tom. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up quickly. Your “Gifts from Home” initiative is part of the Alliances’ work. Tell us about this gift program so people can spread the word to help out this year. For the deployed troops, they love getting our Gifts From Home care packages. First, it...

WASHINGTON — Our head of state is now in Cannes, France, at the G-20 summit, gallivanting with elites from the planet's most powerful economies. For the first time since his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama isn't the center of attention. The stars of this week's party on the French Riviera are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — architects of a "bailout plan" to save the European Union's artificial euro currency and keep the PIIGs (Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece) from going bankrupt. It's all a sideshow, designed to convince us that governments can continue to...

U.S. Virgin Islands — We arrived at a tiny outpost on St. Thomas on Oct. 26. As we stepped ashore, the gentleman beside me said, "28 years ago at this very minute, I was lining up my 'thirsty' A-7 to land on the deck of the USS Independence (CV-62) not far from here. It was day two of Operation Urgent Fury. We were flying nonstop close air support missions for troops in contact on the island of Grenada." The retired naval aviator went on to describe his admiration for the then commander in chief, who boldly ordered more than...

PIERRE, S.D. — The good news about Moammar Gadhafi's demise arrived via my cellphone early Thursday morning. A friend from the Reagan administration, remembering the Libyan dictator's attempt to kill my family, called to let me know and added, "You must be very glad to see this day." But it doesn't seem to be a time for celebration. Most of the Libyan people seem to be rejoicing — and with good reason. They suffered the most under the egomaniacal despot. But unless you are a U.S. Air Force, Navy or Marine pilot who had to brave anti-aircraft fire in...

WASHINGTON — Official Washington — meaning the Obama administration, fellow travelers in Congress and their allies in the so-called mainstream media — here's a quick peek at some recent events, the lead stories they generated and the response by the O-Team. Let me know if you think I'm wrong, but it looks to me as if they have the collective attention span of a fruit fly. For three weeks, several hundred mostly young, media-savvy protesters billing themselves as "occupiers" have been encamped at a small Manhattan park not far from Wall Street. In a pale shadow of what has...

WASHINGTON — Ten years ago this week, America went to war in Afghanistan. At 1 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush told the world, "On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaida terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." At the conclusion of his seven-minute broadcast from the White House Treaty Room, he pledged: "The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail." Now,...

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network...

WASHINGTON — Last week, this column prognosticated that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly would be celebrated by those who hate America. That's certainly true. So, too, was the prediction that Ahmadinejad would claim the mantle of "humanitarian" and be showered with praise for the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — the two Americans held by Tehran since they were detained on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. And then there was the forecast that this week's General Assembly session would be devoted to bashing the United States and Israel, demanding "Palestinian independence"...

WASHINGTON — When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York next week to address the United Nations General Assembly, he will present himself as a great "humanitarian." Many of the America haters at the U.N. will shower him with accolades and commend his "untiring efforts" to gain the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, two Americans jailed in Tehran since they were detained on the Iraq-Afghanistan border in 2009. And seeing as past is prologue at the annual UNGA soiree, the participants will then get down to the work at hand: bashing the United States and Israel,...

Alert readers have reported that their flight, United Airlines 3681, from St. Louis to Washington Dulles had to make an emergency return to the gate as it prepared for take-off. According to local officials, it was found that two men who had boarded the plane as ‘federal air marshals’ didn’t have the proper credentials. Passengers were deplaned, all luggage was removed and re-scanned. All passengers were also re-screened. Passengers are now in the process of re-boarding. There is no word on the two ‘air marshals.’ BigGovernment has contacted security officials in St. Louis. Ron Meyer, of Young America Foundation, was...

Alert readers have reported that their flight, United Airlines 3681, from St. Louis to Washington Dulles had to make an emergency return to the gate as it prepared for take-off. According to local officials, it was found that two men who had boarded the plane as ‘federal air marshals’ didn’t have the proper credentials. Passengers were deplaned, all luggage was removed and re-scanned. All passengers were also re-screened. Passengers are now in the process of re-boarding. There is no word on the two ‘air marshals.’ BigGovernment has contacted security officials in St. Louis. We will report back what we hear....

GODFREY - Retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North minced no words Sunday in describing his feelings about terrorists, men and women in uniform, the media and his faith. Speaking before an audience at an awards ceremony of the Riverbend Memorial, North said, "We are confronted by a vicious, godless and sometimes suicidal enemy." North spoke to the crowd at Hatheway Hall on the campus of Lewis and Clark Community College. North, 68, is now a Fox News commentator, specializing in stories about the military men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. "I have the best job in the...

WASHINGTON — Everyone older than 20 remembers whom he was with, what he was doing and how he learned we were at war that beautiful Tuesday morning a decade ago. Most of us recall a gorgeous late-summer morning with blue skies — "shirt-sleeve weather" — and then the horror: two of the world's tallest buildings collapsing into piles of rubble, the west wall of the Pentagon in flames and a fire-bathed crater in the soil of Somerset County, Pa. Like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941, the assault on Tuesday, Sept. 11,...