Free Republic

What Is Samantha Power Thinking?The charismatic Obama adviser believes that stopping "genocide" is the United States' top foreign-policy priority. On March 18, President Obama explained his decision to mobilize the United States military for international intervention in Libya. “Left unchecked,” he said, “we have every reason to believe that Qaddafi would commit atrocities against his people. Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners.” (As if it hasn’t been already?) That last sentence was a Realpolitik, national-interest justification for the U.S. intervention. But it rang hollow....

The exodus of senior aides from the White House continued as Gen James Jones, Barack Obama’s head of National Security, resigned. His departure, which comes a week after Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, resigned, removes one of the few senior officials not belonging to the US president’s coterie of long-time advisers. Brought in originally for his vast experience and independent voice, it had been clear for some time that the former Nato supreme commander had failed to gel with the president’s inner circle. Gen Jones is being replaced by one of those close aides, his former deputy Thomas Donilon....

Benghazi-gate direct result of pseudo Obamanism's not to call global the enemy by name (radical Islam) Obama's direct order to de-Islamize the war on terror war on terror and possibly to the endangering the love of our people in Libya, on the 11th anniversary of another Islamic jihad attack, 911. Obama's CHOICE of biased Arabist Robert Gate, is also as devastating to blur any clarity that anti-Americanism is mainly driven by ideology. Though, Islamists (whether Taliban or al-Qaida, Ansar al Sharia, Hamas, Boko Haram, Hezbollah or Abu Sayyef), capitalize on any opportunities.

Why are the college records, of a 51-year-old President of the United States, so important to keep secret? I think I know the answer. If anyone should have questions about Obama’s record at Columbia University, it’s me. We both graduated (according to Obama) Columbia University, Class of ’83. We were both (according to Obama) Pre-Law and Political Science majors. And I thought I knew most everyone at Columbia. I certainly thought I’d heard of all of my fellow Political Science majors. But not Obama (or as he was known then- Barry Soetoro). I never met him. Never saw him. Never...

Interesting stuff!!! Interview done by Stephen K. Bannon.

Herman Cain will add a heavyweight to his campaign staff on Monday. Taking over as campaign spokesman will be J.D. Gordon, who served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005-2009 under Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. Gordon is a retired Navy commander. He succeeds Ellen Carmichael, a 2009 graduate of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. So how did CNN report this story? From CNN: “Herman Cain communications director resigns.” No mention was made of J.D. Gordon, at all. Reporter Shannon Travis made it sound as if Team Cain was on the rocks: “It’s a very amicable departure,” Carmichael...

Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that his policies were ungrateful towards the US and were isolating Israel on a global level. Gates’ harsh words were said during a meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee, Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldber reported Tuesday. Gates believes Netanyahu’s government has offered the Obama administration “nothing in return” for its generous security aid, which includes access to top-quality weapons, assistance in developing missile-defense systems and high-level intelligence sharing. The former defense secretary said that not only is Netanyahu ungrateful, but his polices were “endangering his country by...

As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates prepares to retire to private life — after five years as the head of the Department of Defense in both the Bush and Obama administrations — praise is being heaped on him by Democrats and Republicans alike. Herein a dissenting view. History will not be kind to Gates. Despite some noteworthy accomplishments, he will be remembered as the single most important facilitator of an Iranian regime with nuclear weapons. Future historians will compare him to Neville Chamberlain’s military advisers who opposed all forms of military intervention against the greatest potential danger of the era:...

Outgoing US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is worried about the shape of things to come in US foreign policy. In an interview with Newsweek over the weekend, Gates sounded the warning bells. In Gates’ words, “I’ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. It didn’t have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. This is a different time. “To tell you the truth, that’s one of the many reasons it’s time for me to retire, because...

Aboard the Pentagon jet on his last foreign trip as secretary of defense, Robert Gates takes a moment to peer across the American horizon—and the view is dire: the U.S. is in danger of losing its supremacy on the global stage, he says. “I’ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position,” he tells NEWSWEEK, seated in a windowless conference room aboard the Boeing E-4B. “It didn’t have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. This is...

Simply fascinating. You know that things for the Progressive-Liberals are not going so terribly well when the cream of the Liberal crop begin to retract their fatally flawed ideological ideas back into their respective shells much like a turtle under grave duress. Yet this retreat appears to be the latest phenomena with regard to the art of the Conservative refutation. One of the reasons that we began running regular rebuttal pieces was actually based on a lifetime of personal experience. You certainly know the feeling: Minding your own business, meandering through your favorite newspaper when you finally make it to...

In this space a few weeks ago, we discussed the peculiar case of outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He has spent the past month warning about where the U.S. security posture is headed if President Obama has his way on further budget cuts, if forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan prematurely and if many of the NATO allies continue to shirk their responsibilities towards the common defense. "Headed south" would be a charitable characterization of his assessment of that direction. Mr. Gates could not be more right, of course. It is deeply regrettable that all those in the executive branch, the...

Robert Gates will leave his post as Secretary of Defense at the end of this month, but on the way out, he has decided to take a truth-telling lap. Earlier today, Gates addressed NATO in blunt terms, telling European partners that American patience with their lack of military contribution has just about run out. Future leaders in the US won’t have grown up in the Cold War/WWII paradigm, which means they won’t see a strong connection between American and European security — and that means a “dim, if not dismal” future for NATO: America’s military alliance with Europe — the...

The U.S. war in Iraq has just been given an unexpected seal of approval. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in what he billed as his “last major policy speech in Washington,” has owned up to the gains in Iraq, to the surprise that Iraq has emerged as “the most advanced Arab democracy in the region.” It was messy, this Iraqi democratic experience, but Iraqis “weren’t in the streets shooting each other, the government wasn’t in the streets shooting its people,” Gates observed. The Americans and the Iraqis had not labored in vain; the upheaval of the Arab Spring has only underlined...

Katy Couric to Robert Gates on 60 Minutes, "you could see it in his face (Obama) in that photograph, what was it like being near him in that room?"Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn4Xb9aUd2o

On 60 Minutes last night, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was remarkably optimistic about the war in Afghanistan. Essentially, he stressed that the American offensive against the Taliban had driven them out of the populated areas and that the process of attrition had set the conditions for possible reconciliation, meaning a negotiated settlement. I fervently hope the secretary is correct and that he has been shown data not made public to the rest of us. I would suggest a few points for consideration. 1. Have we turned a corner? On May 15, Secretary Gates said: “We’ve turned a corner, because...

None dare call it treason.

Recall how confused many of us were by the Obama candidacy? Remember how we laughed at "community organizing," "hope," and "change?" Do you recall the promise of "fundamental transformation," and how few of us understood what it really meant? If we learned anything from the Obama candidacy, it's that we ought to be on our highest guard when this president is at his most perplexing. It is a mistake to dismiss what seems nonsensical and assume there is no method to the madness. Since American military action began against Libya, confusion has reigned among policymakers and pundits. Some have pointed...

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he doesn't think Libya is "a vital interest" for the United States, but he does say the North African nation is part of a region that's of vital American interest. Gates tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we clearly have interests" in Libya, though he doesn't believe it's a vital American interest. Obama said that when innocent people are being "brutalized" and when a leader such as Gadhafi threatens "a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region" and when other countries are ready to help save lives, then it's in "our national interest...

CAIRO — The U.S. defense secretary said Wednesday that it was too soon to determine the outcome of political turmoil in Yemen and said Washington had not planned for an era without President Ali Abdullah Saleh in office. [Snip] "But clearly there's a lot of unhappiness inside Yemen. And I think we will basically just continue to watch the situation. We haven't done any post-Saleh planning," he said.