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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday. That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official. In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions...

(IsraelNN.com) The world is against Israel because of its own moral weakness and not because of alleged human rights violations, according to Rabbi Yaakov Medan, rabbi of Har Etzion Yeshiva, located in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. “Islam is strong, and it is convenient for people to go with strength,” the rabbi explained in an interview with Arutz-7. He added that the world’s preoccupation with individual rights, as well as the infiltration of Western culture into Israel, are “illnesses” that have led to “an erosion of obligations to the country and of the significance of Israel as a nation.”

“Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.” -Nicolo Machiavelli, "The Prince" In wake of the disclosure that Iran's been secretly developing (at least one) secret underground uranium enrichment facility (sounds like spies were caught) or face more harsh words and stern warnings from the "outraged" international community, Iran offers the following response: Iran...

President Obama will chair a special nuclear-disarmament meeting by the United Nations Security Council. The White House bills this as a historic first, but it is typical of Mr. Obama's emphasis on style over substance. He will appear before the body with the weakest foreign-policy record of any new U.S. president in recent memory... In the Middle East, Mr. Obama's unprecedented obsequiousness in dealing with the Muslim world has generated no tangible returns... In Afghanistan, the president has hit turbulence within his own party, and as the going gets tough, he seems ready to repudiate his "stronger and smarter" strategy...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says he has no plans to ask the Justice Department to end its criminal investigation into the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration. Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to do just that. In a letter to Obama on Friday, they warned that the probe could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to fight terrorism. Obama tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that he appreciates that the former CIA chiefs are wanting "to look after an institution that they helped to build."

<p>LONDON -- Ppolitical fallout from Scotland's release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber has spread to London, as questions arise about whether the U.K. government played a bigger role in the decision than it publicly acknowledged...The political stakes for U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown mounted after a son of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, issued a statement thanking "our friends in the British government who played an important role in reaching this day." He said he believed the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi would further improve relations between the U.K. and the oil-rich North African nation.</p>

An internal Pentagon oversight board has found that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is two years behind schedule, according to multiple congressional aides familiar with the findings. Talk of the program’s problems comes amid intense debate over the future of another fighter plane, the F-22. Defenders of the F-22 argue that continued production is vital to national security. The White House and some lawmakers who favor halting the production of any new F-22 warplanes say the F-35 will fill the gap and meet the nation’s combat aircraft needs. Senators and aides are now lamenting that the Pentagon oversight panel’s...

MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house said Saturday the United States could give up its plans to deploy a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

WASHINGTON – Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over. On next week's trip, Obama will meet not only with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev but with Putin, the prime minister who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor. Said Obama: "I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated. ... Putin has one foot in...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. (snip) Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran, a move that Britain's foreign secretary Sunday called "harassment and intimidation" and reflected a hardening of the regime's stance toward the West. Iranian media said eight local embassy staff were detained for an alleged role in postelection protests, but gave no further details. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said "about nine" employees were detained Saturday and that four had been released. The...

North Korea has been busy, busy, busy since the election of our weak President. This week, they have sharply increased their war rhetoric. On Wednesday they issued this threat: "If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all." And on Thursday they promised a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" if the U.S. attacked them. The media is pretending that it isn't happening, whistling in the dark, but how can anyone avoid noticing that since Obama's failed policies have been introduced, the evil forces...

"Of all the sins which a leader can be guilty, few are as egregious as the simple refusal to lead. Watching President Barack Obama's at first deafening silence and then weak and hyper-cautious words on Iran has been disappointing and painful. Our president must decide if he will serve as leader, or spectator, of the free world. This time no one is asking an American president to send in troops; no one is suggesting the deployment of laser-guided bombs. All it takes is a forthright statement from the leader of the free world: "The people of the United States support...

....Overseas, the coolest president in history was giving a speech. Or, as the official press release headlined it on the State Department Web site, "President Obama Speaks To The Muslim World From Cairo." Let's pause right there: It's interesting how easily the words "the Muslim world" roll off the tongues of liberal secular progressives who would choke on any equivalent reference to "the Christian world."... There is an Organization of the Islamic Conference, which already is the largest single voting bloc at the United Nations and is still adding new members. Imagine if someone proposed an Organization of the Christian...

...a gaggle of Johnnys - notably former Clinton Defense Secretary William J. Perry and other worthies who should know better - are telling the American people that it is safe and responsible to do the national equivalent of jumping off a bridge. They contend that the United States can prudently get rid of most of our nuclear arsenal, en route to what they say is a desirable end-state: a "nuclear-free" world. For a sense of how surreal this recommendation is, consider the prospect that Pakistan's virulent Taliban may be within weeks of joining the nuclear "club" by taking over the...

Inasmuch as Barack Obama fancies himself alternatively the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a closer perusal of FDR’s policies is in order. Beyond the disastrous New Deal, a massive expansion of government bureaucracy and spending which extended the length of the Great Depression; FDR’s dealings with the homicidal Joe Stalin are revealing.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago -- President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba's Communist government. Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here. Later, at a photo opportunity with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama held his tongue when asked what he thought about Ortega's speech. "It was 50...

THE world has rabies and our swooning media de liver headlines about the new Obama family dog. Yeah, the puppy's cute. But must journalists be lapdogs? The week kicked off with gushing media declarations that President Obama had "passed his first test" in a foreign "crisis." Three pirates held an American hostage far too long. It was an embarrassment, not a crisis. Our president was reluctant to authorize deadly force. Against pirates, for God's sake. Then, 24 hours after the Obama White House declared "Mission Accomplished," Somali pirates attacked another US-flagged ship. This time, the pirates used rocket-propelled grenades and...

The North Koreans, in violation of a U.N. Resolution, launch a rocket that flies over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, possibly with the capability of reaching the U.S. What do we do? We send it to the United Nations, which doesn’t even pass another U.N. Resolution, which would certainly be ignored. It agrees to meet again. Yes, the U.N. is so pathetically weak, it can’t even come up with another toothless tiger resolution. It can’t even say North Korea is in violation of a resolution adopted in 2006 after a North Korea missile launch of July 5 and a...

We now call terrorist attacks “man-caused disasters.” We now call the global war on terror “overseas contingency operations.” This neutered terminology will hardly strike fear into our enemies. But it will evoke anxiety in our friends − if we still have any.

North Korea's much-anticipated long- range missile launch on Sunday was a technical dud: The satellite it was trying to put into orbit apparently landed in the Pacific Ocean. But the nuclear upstarts learned something important about President Obama, so they're probably pleased. Speaking in Prague just hours after the launch, Obama responded to the provocation by pledging to negotiate reductions in America's nuclear stockpile. The launch underscored the need for "a world without nuclear weapons," he argued, pledging to do his best to reduce America's warhead inventory. Talk about pie-in-the-sky. Sure, nuclear proliferation poses a serious long-term security threat to...

The first step to figuring where and how we will end up in a war due to the actions and/or lack of actions taken by President Barack Obama is to look at some of the ways wars start from past examples. Wars start in a number of circumstances and motivations. Perhaps a list of some of the most obvious ones would be appropriate. Some wars start by over-reacting to a singular event. An example was WWI, which started by a spiral of events after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. What should have...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The phrase "global war on terror" is finished, at least as far as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is concerned. The top U.S. diplomat told reporters Tuesday that the Obama administration has quit using that line to describe the effort to fight terrorism around the world. "The administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself," Clinton said. Clinton spoke as she headed to Europe for a week of diplomatic meetings. The phrase "war on terror" is widely disliked in Europe and elsewhere overseas, where even close U.S. allies suggested...

There are high hopes for my generation, the Millennials, born between 1981 and 2001. We are to be the ones to stop global warming, cure cancer, and solve most of the world's other problems. After all, the Millennials helped elect Barack Obama, who championed hope and change. Once America has weathered the current economic crisis, we Millennials will be called upon to bring the economy into the middle of this century -- to take risks, create jobs, and elevate the nation to the next level of achievement by replacing our retiring entrepreneurs. It's a shame we never learned the solid...

President Obama's stewardship of the national security portfolio to date amounts to a wrecking operation, a set of policies he must understand will not only weaken the United States but embolden our foes. After all, the communist agitator Saul Alinsky, a formative influence in Mr. Obama's early years According to this logic, the various steps Mr. Obama is taking with respect to the armed forces, the foreign battlefields in which they are engaged, our allies as well as our adversaries will not only diminish our power. They will encourage our enemies to perceive us as less powerful - with ominous...

"Liberty" isn't a word you'll find in President Obama's Iranian New Year message to "the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Nor is "freedom." Nor "democracy." Nor "human rights." Nor will you find any expression of solidarity with the people of Iran--though you'll find plenty of solicitude for their rulers. The president bends over backwards to reassure the mullahs that our government wishes them well. You'll find a paragraph addressed to "the people and leaders of Iran," as if the people and leaders were in harmony, and shared a need to be reassured that we seek "a...

Israel's ambassador to the U.S. called for "immediate and serious action" Friday after a United Nations report showed Iran has enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb. The White House also said the international community must work together to address Iran's uranium enrichment activities, calling the rogue nation's nuclear capabilities an "urgent problem." Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor, in an interview with FOXNews.com, said the report only emphasizes the threat Iran poses to the rest of the world. "It's an extremely worrisome report. ... It emphasizes that with every day passing, Iran is getting closer to a nuclear military capacity," he...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminates its nuclear arms program and stressed her desire to work more cooperatively with China. Speaking ahead of a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week, Clinton also said North Koreans deserved political rights, urged Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, in a comment that may irk Beijing, said Tibetans and all Chinese deserved religious freedom. Searching for a way to end North Korea's nuclear programs is likely to be...

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea appeared to be gearing up Wednesday for another long-range missile test, the latest in a series of provocative acts seemingly aimed at stoking tensions with South Korea and winning the attention of the new U.S. president. In recent weeks, Pyongyang has declared it will scrap peace agreements with Seoul and warned of war on the Korean peninsula. Reports that it could be preparing to test a missile capable of reaching the western United States have added to the anxiety. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that a vehicle carrying radar equipment was seen...

US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. "This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. "Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change," he added. After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran...

As I've said before, Muslim extremists respect strength. Iran no longer respects the United States, and they want the whole world to know it. US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. "This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton took charge of the State Department on Thursday, proclaiming the start of a new era of robust U.S. diplomacy to tackle the world's crises and improve America's standing abroad. Before a raucous, cheering crowd of about 1,000 people, the nation's 67th secretary of state pledged to boost the morale and resources of the diplomatic corps and promised them a difficult but exciting road ahead. "I believe with all of my heart that this is a new era for America," she said to loud applause in the main lobby of the department's headquarters, which President Barack...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – President Obama's request to suspend all war crimes trials at Guantanamo prompted a judge Wednesday to halt the case against a young Canadian in what may be the beginning of the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged terrorists. The judge, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, issued a one-sentence written order for the 120-day continuance, and the lawyer for Toronto native Omar Khadr didn't object. But five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks want their trial to continue, hoping for a death sentence that could bring them martyrdom. "We should continue so...

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners, according to two U.S. officials familiar with drafts of the plans. The proposal Obama is considering would require all CIA interrogators to follow conduct outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the officials said. The plans would also have the effect of shutting down secret "black site" prisons around the world where the CIA has questioned terror suspects — with all future interrogations taking place inside American military facilities. However, Obama's changes...

reporters during his meeting with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, … * Raw Video: Biden's surprise Iraq visit Play Video Barack Obama Video: Raw Video: Biden's surprise Iraq visit AP * Bush Wishing Obama 'All the Best' Play Video Barack Obama Video: Bush Wishing Obama 'All the Best' ABC News * Harding short of fundraising goal Play Video Barack Obama Video: Harding short of fundraising goal WCNC Charlotte WASHINGTON – Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. That executive order is...

Barack Obama will mark a radical break in American foreign policy this week by unveiling a team of diplomats tasked with ushering in a new era of dialogue with enemies abroad. As Hillary Clinton prepares for Senate confirmation hearings this week, she will head a group of advisers who are virtual opposites to the appointees made by President George W Bush. While Bush favoured aggressive neoconservative ideologues, Obama has selected people whose doveish credentials seem impeccable. They will be responsible for reversing the political unilateralism of the Bush years and opening direct negotiations with hostile states, potentially ranging from Syria...

News that Barack Obama is the president-elect of the United States has already sparked a global conversation about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how American foreign policy will shift in the coming months...US troops will be pulled out of Iraq in the next 16 months, while the American force in Afghanistan will be substantially reinforced, reversing what is widely seen as one of the fundamental strategic blunders of the Bush era. The US military effort is to be focused once more on al-Qaida and its allies. Obama has vowed that if necessary, American forces would, as under the...

(IsraelNN.com) Following the deal with Hizbullah, the Arabs of Judea and Samaria ("Palestinians") feel more strongly than ever that "Israel only understands strength," according to a Saudi newspaper. The paper, Al Sharq Al-Awsat, reported that this attitude has been strengthened by Israel's reported flexibility toward Hamas's demands to free prisoners who were involved in hurting Israelis as part of the deal to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. The paper says that the prisoners' relatives have "begun to lose hope" that the Fatah-PA will be able to secure their release through negotiations with Israel. Deal 'invites violence' The PA-Fatah's "Minister for...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond apologizes after a soldier admitted using the Quran for target practice. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, apologized to leaders in Radhwaniya, in the western outskirts of Baghdad, for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. He also read a letter of apology by the shooter. It was the first...

Looks like Obama adviser David Axelrod isn't the only key player talking about the effect the Bhutto assassination will have on the Dem primary. Here's Hillary supporter Evan Bayh, saying that the killing is a reminder that the Republicans will use such occasions to paint Dems as weak, which is why we need to nominate Hillary: “When there are unfortunate calamities like this, the Republicans [will say], ‘See. See what we told you? We have to have someone who’s strong to defend America at a time of concern.’ Well, Senator Clinton is strong,” he said. “And she’s experienced. And she’s...

Dollar's weakness to intensify, experts warn By Richard Blackden Last Updated: 5:53pm BST 18/10/2007 The dollar tumbled to a record low against the euro, breaching the $1.43 level for the first time, as the prospect of the US economy falling into recession increases. Renewed weakness for the greenback comes a day after the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for the American economy next year and predicted China will contribute more to world growth next year than the US for the first time. The latest data from the troubled US housing market suggests that the steepest slump since the early...

WASHINGTON — Despite pressure from Congress, the Bush administration on Wednesday refused to cite China as a country that manipulates its currency to gain unfair trade advantages. That finding was quickly challenged by a group of senators who said they would introduce legislation to make it easier for the United States to pursue economic sanctions against China if the country does not allow its currency to rise in value more quickly against the dollar. American manufacturers contend that China is undervaluing its currency by as much as 40 percent. That has been a boon for American consumers, providing them with...

MADRID, Spain - The seismic shift that midterm elections brought to Washington's political landscape was welcomed by many Wednesday who oppose the war in Iraq and the harsh methods the Bush administration has employed in fighting terrorism. From Paris to Pakistan, politicians, analysts and ordinary citizens said they hoped the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives would force President Bush to adopt a more conciliatory approach to global crises, and teach a president many see as a "cowboy" a lesson in humility. But some also expressed fears that a split in power and a lame-duck president might stall global...

Galatians 5:23 (23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Go to this verse on Bible Tools Contrary to popular belief, the meek do not take everything "lying down." Notice Moses, who was the meekest man of his time. He did not hesitate to order the execution of about three thousand of the idolaters who worshipped the Golden Calf while he was with God on the mountain (Exodus 32:25-28). Against evil this meek man was as stern as steel. How a meek man reacts depends upon what he discerns God's will is for him within the circumstance. Because...

Poster's note: this is a long read, but well worth it. Solzhenitsyn describes succinctly what many of us feel, but cannot express.Text of Address by Alexander Solzhenitsyn at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises, Thursday, June 8, 1978 I am sincerely happy to be here with you on this occasion and to become personally acquainted with this old and most prestigious University. My congratulations and very best wishes to all of today's graduates. Harvard's motto is "Veritas." Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil and gold fell more than two percent and copper dropped nearly nine percent on Monday as investors feared a rally that has taken many commodities to or near record highs may slow economic growth.

The major United Nations powers last night agreed to offer Iran a stark choice of benefits or sanctions in the latest international gambit to persuade Teheran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.The initiative followed the failure of talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, China, France, Britain, America and Germany to resolve the deadlock on how to confront Iran. The "carrot or stick" plan came as US officials conceded that their hopes of pushing through this week a UN resolution mandating Iran's suspension of its nuclear enrichment programme were over. "I think the prospects for an agreement this week are not...

AMERICANS will certainly have 9/11 in mind when they vote today. But they should keep another date in mind, too — one almost exactly a quarter-century ago: Nov. 4, 1979. A clear path runs to 9/11 from the day of the raid on the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the seizure of American hostages. The 1979 embassy attack came at a time when the administration of President Jimmy Carter was trying to prop up the new Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Carter had decided to support Khomeini in the context of the so-called "Green Belt" strategy developed by National Security...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2005 – As Afghanistan's security forces grow and the country's political process moves forward, the Taliban has suffered major setbacks and has begun using more roadside and suicide bombs out of desperation, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan said here today. "If you're on (the Taliban's) side and looking at the trends that are out there right now, the tide of history is moving against you," said Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commanding general of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. "So a shift in tactics is not necessarily a sign of strength. My belief is that a shift in...

The choice of Harriet Miers to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and her subsequent withdrawal, shows that caution is sometimes the most dangerous policy.  She was obviously chosen cautiously as a "stealth" nominee -- someone without a paper trail or a judicial record that could ignite controversy -- in hopes of avoiding a confirmation fight that the Senate Republicans had the votes to win, but had neither the unity nor the guts required to make victory certain.  Harriet Miers was a choice made from political weakness. Now she is gone but the political weakness remains. So celebrations in conservative...

I decided to end my self-imposed exile from posting due to information that I received this past weekend from ‘a little birdie’ in Washington, which I subsequently had confirmed by another ‘insider’ if you can call him that. You know I won’t tell, so don’t bother asking me for names, links, or further information. I trust these individuals, and have received accurate information from them before and shared it here on Free Republic. Of course, all are free to either accept or reject what I am about to share, but if you know anything about the Dog, I don’t change...