Free Republic

BESIDES BEING BILLIONAIRES and spending much of their fortunes to promote pet causes, the leftist financier George Soros and the right-wing Koch brothers have little in common. They could be seen as polar opposites. Soros is an old-fashioned New Deal liberal. The Koch brothers are fire-breathing right-wingers who dream of cutting taxes and dismantling government. Now they have found something to agree on: the United States must end its “forever war” and adopt an entirely new foreign policy. In one of the most remarkable partnerships in modern American political history, Soros and Charles Koch, the more active of the two...

Americans are problem-solvers. We love a good solution. Give us a challenge, and we form committees, assess options, come up with a plan and execute it. This is a highly positive trait. In world affairs, though, it can bring us to grief. Syria is burning in part because the United States is waiting for a good solution. Since all the main alternatives there are bad, we choose none of them. Our immobility has contributed to Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe. When the dust finally settles in Damascus, one of three forces will be in control. One strong possibility is the Islamic State,...

Who is a hero? In today’s America, it is someone who chooses a military career, puts on a uniform, and prepares for war. Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon. Past generations of Americans saw soldiers as ordinary human beings. They were like the rest of us: big and small, smart and dumb, capable of good and bad choices. Now we pretend they are demi-gods. One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics...

December 7th is a day that most Americans take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform as they look back on the Japanese surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on that date in 1941. Not the Boston Globe which published an anti-military screed by columnist Stephen Kinzer on the 73rd anniversary of the attack entitled, Joining the Military Doesn’t Make You a Hero Kinzer decries American society in 2014 treating troopers and veterans as heroes. While Kinzer gives a perfunctory nod to soldiers who perform above and beyond...

Decisions about what action the United States should take against Syria will decisively affect Syria and much of the Middle East. The biggest impact, however, may be felt inside the US. The negative reaction in Congress and among the American people to President Obama’s proposal of military intervention has been sharp. U.S. receptiveness to Russia’s proposal to sequester Syria’s chemical weapons shows how eager Washington is to avoid a military response. Neither this turn nor the potential “no” vote in Congress would represent a full rejection of Obama’s plan. It would, however, be something extraordinary — even historic. It would...