Free Republic

In the wave of cancellations sweeping America, Confederate statues have been particularly hard hit. They have been graffitied, assaulted, and torn down, while authorities rush to remove them. For his part, President Donald Trump has been a steadfast defender of the statues and other forms of recognition of the Confederacy. He has come out in favor of preserving the names of military bases named after Confederate generals and pointedly said that we should build on our heritage rather than tear it down. Conservatives tend to think the same way. They reflexively oppose politically correct campaigns to destroy anything giving offense....

When he burst on to television screens across the world last week, speaking perfect English, Mikheil Saakashvili looked every inch the charismatic New York-trained lawyer that he is. Known to friends as "Misha" the cosmopolitan 40-year-old is unquestionably brilliant, speaks half dozen languages and has a Dutch wife. But Mr Saakashvili has handed Russia a victory it could scarcely have dreamed of - his decision to invade South Ossetia has left his army humiliated and he could soon be fighting for his political life with no prospect of any meaningful help from his Western allies. How did he make such...

SCALIA THE ENEMYby Judie BrownReleased May 28, 2008It came as no surprise when a dear friend, Andy V. of Minnesota, wrote me concerning a comment Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made during an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes on April 27. Since I never watch network programming, which is, I presume, a blessing, I simply had no idea what the Catholic Scalia had said. Perhaps you did, but in case you are uninformed, the following is from the transcript of that interview:"What is the connection between your Catholicism, your Jesuit education, and your judicial philosophy?" Stahl asks. "It...

Disregard for Human Life By Pavel Felgenhauer There can be no justification or sympathy for the hostage-takers who last week took the lives of innocent children in the school in Beslan, North Ossetia. The final body count still isn't in following the reckless, poorly organized attempt to free the hostages by Russian special forces. But it's already clear that only about 10 percent of the hostages escaped unharmed; the rest were killed or wounded, most of them children. In his address to the nation last Saturday, President Vladimir Putin rightly said that a full-scale terrorist war is being waged against...

Violence finally forced US to follow path suggested by Britain last year By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 29/06/2004) A month before the war in Iraq, hundreds of American officials secretly gathered in a Washington auditorium for a "rock drill" - the US military term for a meeting to plan scenarios - to decide how Iraq would be run after the downfall of Saddam Hussein. It included a small band of British officials who had been drawing up options for an international administration in Iraq lasting up to two years, based on previous experiences in Cambodia, East Timor and...