Free Republic

"…The more terrifying the occasion for defense, the closer will become the organization and the more coercive the influence upon each member of the herd. War sends the current of purpose and activity flowing down to the lowest level of the herd, and to its most remote branches. All the activities of society are linked together as fast as possible to this central purpose of making a military offensive or a military defense, and the State becomes what in peacetimes it has vainly struggled to become—the inexorable arbiter and determinant of men’s business and attitudes and opinions…" -Randolph Bourne Dear...

There is nothing conservative about the war in Afghanistan. The Center for Defense Information said a few months ago that we had spent over $400 billion on the war and war-related costs there. Now, the Pentagon says it will cost about $1 billion for each 1,000 additional troops we send to Afghanistan. One Republican Member from California told me recently that we could buy off every warlord in Afghanistan for $1 billion. Fiscal conservatives should be the ones most horrified by all this spending. Conservatives who oppose big government and huge deficit spending at home should not support it in...

Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate saying we should get our troops out of Iraq now. Here's more of my edited interview with the congressman. Some people say that if we don't attack the enemy there, they'll attack us here. Ron Paul: I think the opposite is true. The radicals were able to use our bases in Saudi Arabia and the bombing of Iraq (from 1991 to 2001) as a reason to come over here. If China were to do the same thing to us, and they had troops in our land, We would resent it. We'd probably...

The world is dissatisfied with American leadership. Shocked and frightened after 9/11, we put forward an angry face to the globe, not one that reflected the more traditional American values of hope and optimism, tolerance and opportunity. This fearful approach has hurt the United States' ability to bring allies to its cause, but it is not too late to change. The nation should embrace a smarter strategy that blends our "hard" and "soft" power -- our ability to attract and persuade, as well as our ability to use economic and military might. Whether it is ending the crisis in Pakistan,...

When Republicans lost control of Congress in this month's midterm elections, there was plenty of cheering within the ranks of anti-war activists. Yet that glee at the GOP defeat should not be mistaken for support for Democrats. Although optimistic that the new majority in Congress will help their cause, activists emboldened by a vote largely seen as a referendum on the Iraq war intend to keep up, if not step up, pressure on Democrats and Republicans alike. "Some people felt like celebrating and dancing" over the election's result, said East Bay activist Bob Hanson of Rossmoor Grandparents for Peace. "But...

Congo's "hippies of the forest" apes dying out fast By David Lewis KINSHASA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Pygmy chimpanzees dubbed "hippies of the forest" for resolving conflicts through sex rather than violence are dying out faster than ever in post-war Democratic Republic of Congo, a conservationist said on Tuesday. Bonobos, the rarest of all the great apes, are being killed in large numbers by bands of gunmen two years after the vast central African country's most recent war officially ended. "In 1980, there were about 100,000 bonobos in Congo. In 1990 there were thought to be 10,000," Claudine Andre, founder...

A Japanese woman who went to Iraq as a human shield is now copping flak in the war-torn country for opening a Baghdad brothel for American servicemen, according to Shukan Shincho (1/27). Iraqi communists are up in arms, claiming the human shield who entered their country because she was opposed to the U.S. starting a war there is now operating a sex service for GIs. "A Japanese woman called Yukiko Muragishi came to Iraq with her friends to act as a human shield and stayed there when the war had finished. She stayed because, inside Baghdad's Green Zone being protected...

Out of the 19 Islamic terrorists that attacked America in 9/11, how many Iraqis?Hint-----ZERO Out of the thousands of Islamic militants arrested in the US and Europe, how many Iraqis?Hint----ZERO Where did the US discover there is a new El Quaida terrorist camp? Hint----Iran, not IraqWell, I am not the smartest man in the world, but the above facts should give me a hint on who should be my greatest enemy?