Free Republic

One hundred years ago this summer, the German Chancellor reacted with shock and dismay when the British ambassador brought him news of his country’s declaration of war. Germany had invaded Belgium, a country whose independence Germany had pledged by treaty to respect. The Chancellor was distraught. He said he could not believe Britain would go to war over “a scrap of paper.” Americans this summer are not so much war weary as war wary. We certainly do not want any further entanglements in the Mideast. But we do know that great countries keep their word. If they don’t keep their...

Obama's poll numbers dropped below those of former President George W. Bush. By the end of Bush's term, focus groups were telling pollsters they despised the very four-letter word B-U-S-H. When John McCain faced Obama in 2008, Democrats gleefully slammed McCain's quest as the "third Bush term." Given Obama's light resume and see-no-flaws cheerleading by an adoring media, Obama's fall was inevitable. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, absolute adoration comes close. In practically anointing Obama, our "watchdog" media ignored a thin resume full of red flags. So in four years, Obama shoots from unknown state lawmaker, with little private sector...

resident Barack Obama treats the press like a spoiled child treats his parents. Despite the pampering, he just keeps complaining about them until he gets his way. As America tires of his inflated sense of self-importance while the economy limps and his foreign policy crumbles, Obama travels around the country complaining that the mean old media aren't complimentary enough. At an event with big donors in May in Chicago, Obama lamented that he -- the very essence of reason and nonpartisanship -- is lumped in with a fanatical Congress in a tale of gridlocked Washington. "You'll hear if you watch...

Once again, Barack Obama is showing his lack of serious concern for the military. Instead of court martialing Bowe Bergdahl, who presumably went AWOL in Afghanistan, Obama traded five high-level Taliban terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, for his release. The President used military pay and pensions as a political football during recent budget debates. Thanks to Obama's opposition to reform, the Veterans Administration is overwhelmed with an endless backup of paperwork to process --while veterans die on secret waiting lists at government run hospitals. Time and again, regardless of what the American people want, Obama stays true to his leftist ideology....

The only thing more disturbing than the arrogance, incompetence, and lawlessness of Barack Obama's administration is that most liberals are perfectly fine with everything he's doing. It's shocking that there are so many Americans who don't know about the Constitution, the rule of law, or even what happens to the country just as long as someone they agree with ideologically is in charge. In fact, the only time liberals seem to get really upset these days is if someone criticizes Barack Obama or tries to put ANY KIND of restraint on his power. Want to know how America would...

President Obama evidently was caught by surprise by the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs. So, apparently, was VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who evidently took at face value the corrupt VA statistics -- and who, after a distinguished military career, resigned last week. One who was probably not taken by surprise is longtime Yale Law Professor Peter Schuck, who identified the problems at the VA before the scandal broke in his recently published book, "Why Government Fails So Often and How It Can Do Better." Schuck is no libertarian who wants to do away with government altogether. He says...

The Washington Times reports that the Pentagon pretty much knew the whereabouts of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in recent years. So why didn't they rescue him? Quoting a former intelligence official, the Times said: "Military commanders were loath to risk their people to save this guy. They were loath to pick him up and, because of that hesitancy, we wind up trading five Taliban guys for him. The mentality was, 'We're not going to lose more of our own guys on this.'" The Times also quoted an anonymous "high-level congressional aide": "Joint Special Operations Command always had the rescue mission on...

Euphoria over the Taliban's release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was quickly tempered by media reports that Bergdahl had abandoned his post and that his father made comments opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bergdahl's father tweeted, "I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child." Does that include those children killed while being used as human shields by the Taliban? Where is Bergdahl's concern for women who die from "honor killings" and for girls who are denied an education? The up-front cost of this "prisoner exchange" is the...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. First Lady Michelle Obama recently appeared on the Web holding a sign: #BringBackOurGirls. She was presumably acting with the full approval of her husband. President Barack Obama is the Commander-in-Chief of what was once repected as a Super Power. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron similarlyresorted to the Internet to express the concern of a nation once known as Great Britain. These fatuous responses to the kidnapping of nearly three hundred Christian girls by the Islamist Boko Haram in Nigeria have met with widespread derision, as they should. But these empty...

Speaking to graduates at West Point (New York), President Barack Obama tooted on his toy horn, "al-Qaida's leadership on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been decimated." Even that slender boast -- just on the border regions? -- is now vitiated. The five Taliban terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will step nimbly into any vacant posts. Khairullah Khairkhwa, one of the founders of the Taliban, served as governor of Herat province when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. He is known for ethnic massacres, narcotics trafficking, close ties to Osama bin Laden, and supervising...

Climate modelers and disaster proponents remind me of four guys who were marooned on an island, after their plane went down. The engineer began drawing plans for a boat; the lumberjack cut trees to build it; the pilot plotted a course to the nearest known civilization. But the economist just sat there. The exasperated workers asked him why he wasn’t helping. “I don’t see the problem,” he replied. “Why can’t we just assume we have a boat, and simply leave?” In the case of climate change, those making the assumptions demand that we act immediately to avert planetary crises based...

In President Barack Obama's egocentric world, everything -- civil war in Syria, Russian power grabs in Ukraine, Chinese claims to Vietnamese and Japanese territory in the South China Sea, and peace in the Middle East -- revolves around him. Has there ever been a more self-absorbed commander in chief in our nation's history? Not that one could imagine listening to the president talk this week about his role -- and, by extension, the role of the United States of America -- in the world. The president took the occasion of the commencement address to West Point on Wednesday to define...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. When Sen. Barack Obama went to Berlin in 2008 and proclaimed himself a “citizen of the world,” he was acclaimed by hundreds of thousands of young Germans. They were as excited as many young Americans were by this avatar of Hope and Change. The candidate chose an odd backdrop for his address, however. Mr. Obama spoke in front of the Berlin Victory Column. It is an impressive monument to be sure, but it commemorates the lightning victory of Prussia in a lightning war against its unoffending little neighbor, Denmark. This...

Beginning in the 1960s, shortly after the Russians shocked the world by launching Sputnik, America launched its drive to put a man on the moon. While we were racing towards the moon, we were also developing the Internet. It started out as a military project, but transitioned to academic use and then to public use. By the earlier 1990s, we began to see the Internet that we now know as the world’s largest and most accessible source for information — the world's mega-library. You’ve likely heard that the Obama Administration plans to surrender US control of the Internet to...

PARIS -- As a chronic immigrant, I'm loath to support immigration policies that might make life difficult for anyone seeking to legitimately integrate into and contribute to an adoptive nation. Nonetheless, as the Obama administration attempts to reform U.S. immigration policies, there needs to be some standard of selection for immigrants. That standard should be nothing more or less than meritocracy. The common argument against meritocracy is the well-worn image of the hard-working illegal immigrant who lives in a dive and toils away in the underground economy to send money to his family back home -- who he hopes will...

The hollowness at the core of 21st century liberal politics stands out against the backdrop of the big climate change ... would "debate" be the word? Not likely. The air fills with assumptions, generated by the media sources that channel most political assumptions. Among these: The people will believe every word from on high, duly knuckling our foreheads. As President Obama himself put it, referring to a recent National Climate Assessment report: "Earlier this week I issued ... " With characteristic modesty the president corrected himself: "Or we issued a report (showing) that climate change is not some far-off problem...

Have you noticed that the cries of the cultural and political “left” in the U.S. are becoming more venomous and shrill? As President Barack Obama flails on the international stage and approval for his domestic agenda and his party in Congress slips away, so-called “progressive” Americans are also watching something else slip away: the chances of politicians and government bureaucrats getting a strangle-hold on the petroleum energy industry. The stated goal of progressive energy policy is to stave-off “global warming” (or “climate change” or “climate disruption” or whichever term progressives choose at any given moment), and the means to that...

Well it seems the President is still trying to keep up appearances. This week the Obama administration completed the installation of new solar panels on top of the White House. It was almost 30 years ago that Reagan removed the solar panels that Jimmy Carter had built on top of the president’s residence, but shockingly enough, President Obama has once again ruined everything Reagan created. This is a reminder to the American people that President Obama is supposed to be a big proponent of stopping climate change. According to a White House spokesman, “Continuing President Obama’s commitment to lead by...

President Obama’s most recent visit to Asia probably struck many Americans as simply the latest round of executive-level diplomacy -- basically the kind of trip abroad that chief executives have been making for decades. He’s been to the region six times as president, after all -- not much different than President Bush at a comparable point in his presidency. But there was more to it than that. The unstated mission seemed to be to reassure our nervous allies that we remain committed to their security, and that we’re ready, willing and able to defend them against escalating threats. Unfortunately, it’s...

I just don’t get it! Why can’t we give the poor guy a break? The President’s popularity has totally plummeted in the polls rivaling or even exceeding the worst of President George W. Bush. Why are all the pundits giving the poor man an “F” for performance? America, it’s time to stand up and give Barack Obama his just due. A higher grade for his report card is amply justified. When the First Lady said that the pie wouldn’t be expanded but redistribution was the goal most chuckled. All socialists try to bring down the upper class, to revitalize the...