Free Republic

Half a century ago, George Orwell, writing on literary censorship, wrote that “unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.” That dynamic now broadly extends to an opaque network of government agencies and self-proclaimed anti-misinformation groups that have repressed online speech. There’s no official ban on discussing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines or criticizing American involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war, but editors and journalists have realized that writing on such topics can come at a cost. News publishers have been demonetized and shadow-banned for reporting dissenting views and the bureaucratic means...

... Kissinger’s beliefs, which emerge through his writing, are certainly not for the faint-hearted. They are emotionally unsatisfying, yet analytically timeless. They include: Disorder is worse than injustice, since injustice merely means the world is imperfect, while disorder tempts anarchy and the Hobbesian nightmare of war and conflict, of all against all. It follows, then, that order is more important than freedom, since without order there is no freedom for anybody. The fundamental issue in international and domestic affairs is not the control of wickedness, but the limitation of self-righteousness. For it is self-righteousness that often leads to war and...

There are a whole lot of people in the West who are having their conceptual view of the world turned upside down. Westerners, and especially Americans, are used to the post-World War II globohomo order in which the Global American Empire (GAE) uses its power, both soft and hard, to enforce onto the rest of the world a set of progressive, left-wing social patterns coupled with exploitative economic patterns designed to benefit a tiny globalist transnational elite. Modern Americans are used to thinking of themselves as “heroes” who step in to save the day all around the world wherever there...

As a card-carrying neoconservative, I am usually a critic of realpolitik. But in judging the Trump administration’s current response to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, I find myself thinking that more realpolitik would lead to better policy. Here’s what I mean. The president has made two statements, both of which refuse to break with Saudi Arabia or its crown prince: his formal White House statement and his comments to reporters when about to get into Marine One and depart the White House. Both constitute a kind of realpolitik. The formal statement begins this way: “The world is a...

If there is one thing that President-elect Trump may do right, it is apply some Realpolitik to the Mideast. It may be the only possible way to deal with the matter. For far too long, the world has tried to solve the Mideast morass from a position of morality. However, when the competing sides have completely opposing moralities, there can be no common ground. Out of the frustration arise completely wild-eyed proposals that have absolutely no hope of working. The Arabists are now proposing a one-state solution, where both Jews and Arabs would be equally enfranchised inside a secular state....

This side of the father-and-son isolationist firm Ron Paul & Son, it's unheard of for a conservative Republican to attack neoconservatives by name. But that is exactly what Texas Sen. and rising presidential candidate Ted Cruz is doing. And he might be tapping into a philosophy of national security reflecting the preference of most Americans. In a Bloomberg interview over the weekend, Cruz accused his rival for the GOP nomination, Marco Rubio, of "military adventurism," even linking him to Hillary Clinton. "Senator Rubio emphatically supported Hillary Clinton in toppling (Moammar) Gadhafi in Libya. I think that made no sense," Cruz...

WASHINGTON, September 6, 2014 — Rand Paul’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal sums up his analysis of how the menace of the Islamic State developed, and clearly declares that it must be dealt with: "The Islamic State represents a threat that should be taken seriously. But we should also recall how recent foreign-policy decisions have helped these extremists so that we don’t make the same mistake of potentially aiding our enemies again". The Christian Science Monitor wonders, “Has Rand Paul become a Hawk?” and outlines his pre-existing image: His relatively dovish foreign-policy views have long been seen as...

The friendship between China and Pakistan, read billboards in Chinese and English dotting Islamabad this week, "is higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel." This sort of romantic sloganeering routinely bubbles up ahead of key bilateral summits between the two countries, and so it did this week as Chinese President Xi Jinping made his maiden visit to the South Asian nation. "This will be my first trip to Pakistan, but I feel as if I am going to visit the home of my own brother," Xi wrote in an article published in Pakistani papers...

So here’s Obama’s opinion: Ukraine should not get military aid from the West because even with American help, Russia would still mop the floor with them. And this, according to the Times, is what Obama thinks will intimidate Putin into signing a peace treaty. I’ll offer the president some free advice: telling Putin the world is too weak to stop him isn’t very intimidating. Yet even if the West got Putin to sign on to a new agreement, nothing will have been accomplished. Putin has been violating the last ceasefire agreement, because there’s no one to enforce it. What Obama,...

...After a laudable, but politically disastrous, bid last year to convince his fellow Republicans to support citizenship for illegal immigrants, he’s now trying a new route to 2016: Foreign policy.... Rubio simply has no idea what “totalitarian” means. “Totalitarian” is not a synonym for “dictatorship.” Dictatorial regimes seek to stamp out behavior that actively challenges the state. Totalitarian regimes seek to stamp out behavior that does not actively support the state. A totalitarian regime, explained Irving Howe, “tries to give the state total power over all areas of human life, to destroy civil society entirely, and to extend state ownership...

Pro-Russian activists with clubs and whips clashed with pro-Kiev supporters Sunday as tens of thousands rallied across Ukraine in rival protests... Kiev got crucial backing as US President Barack Obama invited interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the White House on Wednesday to show support.

Why didn't Mubarak send in the tanks? Why didn't Tahrir Square turn into Tiananmen Square? Is the Egyptian regime less cruel than its Chinese counterpart? How is it that all the dictatorships in the Arab world have suddenly gotten weak in the knees over unarmed civilians doing nothing more than demonstrating? After all, the regime is all-powerful; they have built their security forces over decades in concentric circles so that the inner circle will owe its existence and power to the ruler and will always do his bidding. And if the need will arise, it will always force the ruler's...

Dear Mark, I find it odd that you'd see a secular protest of millions of Egyptians against a tyrant to be "dark." This is what America stands for -- our ideals are winning. The Islamic extremists have not caught on with the Arab youth. Moreover, these changes are inevitable. Half the Arab population is below 24. They see on al jazeera how corrupt their governments are, and how life is in the West. They are becoming modern. They will not submit to dictators. We can either stand for our principles and embrace change, or we can cling to tyrants and...

George Bush has been unequivocal in his support of freedom in Iran. Twice in his State of the Union addresses he spoke to the Iranian people. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you. --- State of the Union address February 2, 2005 And tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with...

America is the reluctant sheriff of a wild world that sometimes seems mired in wrongdoing. The UN has nothing to offer in the way of enforcing laws and dispensing justice, other than spouting pious oratory and initiating feeble missions that usually do more harm than good. NATO plays a limited role, as in Afghanistan, but tends to reflect the timidity (and cowardice) of Continental Europe. Britain and a few other nations such as Australia are willing to follow America's lead but are too weak to act on their own. That leaves the U.S. to shoulder the responsibility. Otherwise — what?...

: Report: China Won't Curb North Korean Missile Program Defense Daily International 07/21/2006 Author: Dave Ahearn Even as the United States implores China to use its leverage to restrain North Korean ambitions to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, China has no intention whatever of wielding its influence to that end, a new report states. In other words, the United States is left to its own devices, forced to erect its own missile defense when confronted by a rogue regime bent on acquiring awesome military powers. While China postures by voicing "concern" that North Korea on July 4 fired a series of...

The punditry world is abuzz with talk of a recent New Yorker article (no link available) by writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who has interviewed Brent Scowcroft, the former national security advisor for the Ford Administration and the Administration of George H.W. Bush. In a number of passages in the piece, Scowcroft takes on the current Bush Administration over the issue of Iraq, something for which he has earned applause from many Democrats and other Bush critics. But when one reads the entire New Yorker piece, one finds that Scowcroft's critique is directed at foreign policy idealism in general. And it's a...

Rick Ackerman Sep 29, 2004 Excerpt from the current Rick's Picks (website). You can subscribe here. Will the U.S. simply declare victory and pull out of Iraq after the election? My colleague Gary North thinks so, and he's in good company, since conservative columnist Robert Novak also thinks so. "Novak says that plans are now being made at the highest level to pull out of Iraq next year," notes North in his latest letter." Here's how Novak himself sees things playing out: "Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year....

Since WMDs were not the real reason for attacking Iraq, the question of the war’s true purpose remains unresolved. Almost two months since President Bush announced that “major combat operations” had come to an end the United States appears strangely uncertain of its post-war mission. Dozens of American soldiers have died in accidents and, much more worryingly, in hit-and-run attacks by assailants unknown: mysterious “diehard Saddam loyalists,” Tehran-prompted Shiite fanatics, and bandits who thrive on chaos are all suspected. The number of “peacetime” casualties—averaging a soldier a day—may soon exceed that of combat losses suffered in March-April. The cost of...

Longs vs. Shorts: Realpolitik, Economics and the War on Iraq by Al Martin (Sept. 23) The bizarre spectacle of Hillary Clinton and Brent Scowcroft appearing together on television to debate the pros and cons of waging war on Iraq is more significant than most people imagine. Hillary Clinton argued that the United States should attack, while Brent Scowcroft called for "restraint." The reason why Scowcroft and others of the old crusty hard Bushonian right are now turning against a war in Iraq is because, through secret offshore trading accounts, they've gone short oil. In the oil business, it is commonly...