Free Republic

There is another historical analogy that I think is worth pointing out, and that is the historical analogy of the early 2000s. Now, in 2003, I was a high school senior, and I had a political position back then: I believed the propaganda of the George W. Bush administration that we needed to invade Iraq, that it was a war for freedom and democracy, that those who were appeasing Saddam Hussein were inviting a broader regional conflict. Does that sound familiar to anything that we’re hearing today? It’s the same exact talking points 20 years later with different names. But...

The United Nations’ human rights office reported on Tuesday the discovery of mass graves outside of two hospitals in Gaza with hundreds of bodies, including some who were found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes. “Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands… tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing local Palestinian authorities.

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media says in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency says. It gives no other detail. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has said that it would take Iran just weeks to have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb, and that Tehran’s activity, alongside the limited access it grants to its facilities, “raises eyebrows.” But International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told Deutsche Welle in a report published Monday that attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities should be a “no-go.” Grossi said that Iran is “weeks rather than months” away from having enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

A potential Israeli attack on Iranian territory would bring about a complete change of “circumstances,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Raisi, who is visiting Pakistan, is quoted as saying such an attack could possibly result in there being nothing left of the “Zionist regime.”

Ahead of a planned trip to China this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reported to have alleged that Beijing is still committing genocide against Uyghur Muslim minorities. The comments in the State Department’s annual report on human rights around the world echoed language in previous years concerning China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the western province of Xinjiang.

Hardline Iranian parliamentarian and member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Javad Karimi Ghodousi tweeted on April 22 implying that if granted permission, Iran could test its first nuclear weapon within one week.[17] Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Deputy Chairman Shahriar Heydari stated on April 22 in response to Karimi Ghodousi’s tweet that Iran has no ”intention” to build or use nuclear weapons.[18] Heydari cited Khamenei’s 2003 fatwa as the reason Iran is not seeking to acquire or use nuclear weapons. Heydari stated that Karimi Ghodousi's tweet may have been taken out of context.

A huge crowd of faculty members who teach at Columbia University in New York held a mass walk-out on Monday afternoon to protest the institution having called police to arrest students at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest last week. Hundreds of members of the teaching cohort at Columbia walked out in solidarity with the students who were arrested by the New York police department last week and also suspended by the university. The solidarity protest came as students put protest tents back up in the middle of campus on Monday after they were torn down last week when more than 100...

Matt Gaetz floated the prospect on Thursday that Representative Lauren Boebert could be better suited to serve as House speaker than current Speaker Mike Johnson who continues facing outrage from conservatives over his support for Ukraine aid.

taboo has been broken in Europe. Only a few months ago, it would have been inconceivable for European leaders to propose sending European troops to Ukraine. But on February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron said the deployment of European forces to Ukraine could not be “ruled out.” Since then, other European officials have joined the chorus; the Finnish defense minister and Polish foreign minister have both suggested that their countries’ forces could end up in Ukraine. These comments, combined with existing support for such measures in the Baltic states, show that there is a growing bloc of countries open to...

The head of Israel's military intelligence directorate has resigned, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva announced his resignation after he failed to prevent Hamas' unprecedented Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest terror attack in Israel's history, the military said. "The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever," Haliva wrote in his resignation letter, according to a translation by the Associated...

Police clad with riot gear started swarming Yale University’s Connecticut campus early Monday where hundreds of students have been staging an anti-Israel protest. Footage posted online showed cops arriving at the Ivy League school and blocking off entrances to a plaza at the New Haven campus where roughly 200 protesters were gathered.

MOSUL, Iraq, April 21 (Reuters) - At least five rockets were launched from Iraq's town of Zummar towards a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters. The attack against U.S. forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against U.S. troops.

JNS) – The White House was shocked at the scale of the Iranian missile and drone attack against Israel on the night of April 13, according to a Sunday report in The Wall Street Journal detailing how the Biden administration handled the unprecedented event. According to the article, President Joe Biden cut short his vacation at Rehoboth Beach, Del., and rushed back to Washington the evening before the attack where he was briefed on Tehran’s plans. Even with advanced warning of the attack, administration officials told the Journal that the senior officials gathered in the White House Situation Room were...

“Now and the last two years, with less than 3% of our defense budget, two years running, with the Ukrainians have eliminated 87% of the Russians pre existing ground forces, 63% of their tanks, 32% of their armored personnel carriers”

WASHINGTON – Few people are entirely neutral in their assessment of the work and influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Whether revered, feared or reviled, AIPAC is seen by some as an icon of pro-Israel advocacy – or the bogeyman symbolizing everything that's wrong with America's political lobbying and fundraising scene. But no matter how it's characterized, AIPAC's political evolution over the past three years has been one of the defining stories of U.S. politics.

Israel has a national debt of $310 Billion owed by its 9.6 million citizens. Individually, each Israeli citizen’s share is $32,291. The U.S. has a national debt of $34 Trillion owed by 334 million citizens. Individually, each U.S. citizen’s share is $101,796. All politics aside, why am I, you, each of our children and grandchildren borrowing money to give to Israel when each of us already carries a debt burden three times that of each Israeli citizen?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to announce sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the next few days, according to three American sources. The sanctions are a result of human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. This will be the first time that the United States government has imposed sanctions on an Israeli military unit for its activities in the West Bank. The sources stated that the American sanctions will prohibit the transfer of US military aid to the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, will prevent its soldiers and officers from taking part in training with...

The US believes that Russia appears to be gaining momentum in the two-year conflict. They are considering the possibility of sending additional military advisers to the embassy in Kyiv, reports Politico. Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder stated that advisers would not have a combat role but would advise and support the Ukrainian government and armed forces. "Throughout this conflict, the Department of Defense has reviewed and adjusted the U.S. presence in Ukraine as security conditions change. We are currently considering the possibility of sending several additional advisers to enhance the Defense Cooperation Office (ODC) at the embassy," Ryder said...

Deep down, the smartest Democratic operatives were hoping that the Ukraine funding bill would fail so they could pin the inevitable collapse on Trump. Now Biden will own it completely.