Free Republic

Arkansas has asked the Supreme Court to revisit its long-standing ruling that a woman can terminate a pregnancy until the fetus is viable outside of the womb. Arkansas on Tuesday asked the justices to overturn a lower court decision that found that the state’s ban on abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and when a heartbeat is detected is unconstitutional. The court established the viability standard in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed it in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Arkansas argues that the viability rule is arbitrary, not written in the constitution, and is outdated....

War is nasty, brutal and costly. In our latest wars, many of the casualties suffered by American troops are a direct result of their having to obey rules of engagement created by politicians who have never set foot on — or even seen — a battlefield. Today's battlefield commanders must be alert to the media and do-gooders who are all too ready to demonize troops involved in a battle that produces noncombatant deaths, so-called collateral damage. According to a Western Journalism article by Leigh H Bravo, "Insanity: The Rules of Engagement" (http://tinyurl.com/p59nlqs), our troops fighting in Afghanistan cannot do night...

General rips military leaders: 'They should put their stars on the table and be prepared to resign' U.S. Army Special Forces (photo: Department of Defense) Rules of engagement that risk the lives of U.S. forces and harsh punishments over questionable charges have America’s elite Green Berets fuming at the Obama administration, and the former commander of all Green Berets says it’s just the latest symptoms of a military deliberately weakened by this administration and military officials more concerned about advancement than the good of their forces and their nation. The litany of Green Beret frustration was detailed this week by...

During his historic trip to Alaska, President Barack Obama spent some time fishing at Kanakanak Beach in Dillingham and in a comical moment, a salmon spawned on his shoes. Wearing a pair of orange gloves, Obama examined some of the fish that he caught. The second one he picked up began squirting at his shoes. "Uh-oh, what's happening there?" he asked.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) encouraged constant vigilance on Wednesday, during a visit to the "Jordan Lions" Brigade in the Jordan Valley. "The result in every encounter with terrorists should be like this: that you remain standing while the terrorist is on the ground," he stated. "You should be aware that someone is looking at you and looking for the weak spot." Ya'alon also addressed the waves of terror rippling through Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. "In Judea and Samaria, we are going through a time of multiple incidents," he said. "The trick is not to become a target by terror...

Gay marriage and abortion have little in common except for how each became federal law without ever being codified by Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision delivers social change the citizenry not only did not want but which it actively fought against.

When President Obama draped the nation’s highest award for combat valor around the neck of an Afghan war hero at the White House in October 2013, a highly decorated Green Beret officer who sat nearby faced an ugly reality: The Army was investigating him on charges of murder and conspiracy. Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was invited to the ceremony by William D. Swenson, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan four years earlier. Like Swenson, Golsteyn had braved enemy fire repeatedly, seen fellow soldiers die and voiced deep frustration with the ways he saw U.S. troops...

Mother Jones is so upset that Ted Cruz  hired a consultant who’s capable of winning elections, the magazine smeared him by invoking a Missouri-based controversy even it admits he hasn’t genuinely been linked to. The magazine waited until deep in the second paragraph to point that out. It was no surprise on Monday when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) formally announced his presidential bid. By last summer, he was making key hires for his campaign crew. And this included recruiting a controversial Missouri-based political operative named Jeff Roe, who is known for his ruthless, bare-knuckled style and who has recently been...

The sixth living servicemember to be honored with the Medal of Honor was spied on by Army investigators over an Amazon book review that mentioned his name. Captain Will Swenson received the Medal of Honor on Oct. 15, 2013 for his heroism during the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan in 2009. His trash was rummaged through, leading up to the ceremony with President Obama, and his girlfriend and Seattle neighbors were confronted about his whereabouts. “There’s good reason to suspect that the investigation into Swenson was really about his award, his criticism of the Army, and the hope that agents...

Such is the quality of American military leadership that generals and political appointees like McHugh will send courageous soldiers like Golsteyn into incredibly difficult (some would suggest impossible) circumstances, then invest years in second-guessing their actions after the fact—and then, finding no evidence of wrongdoing, still publicly dishonor the man without giving him a chance to defend himself.

We first wrote about the case of U.S. Army 1LT Clint Lorance of Texas last year. His was what I termed a seriously gross miscarriage of justice. Those of us who have been stationed in Afghanistan know the tactics and actions of the enemy. Any time two or more individuals are on a motorcycle approaching your convoy or position you can bet — if unarmed — they are scouts. And if they are scouts for a main attack, they are just as dangerous a threat. Herein lies the problem of our methods of prosecuting combat operations — not overseas contingency...

First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, 1st Platoon, C Troop, 4-73 Cavalry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division U.S. intelligence and defense officials have recently estimated that 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to the battlefields to fight alongside ISIS in Syria. While these monsters are free to terrorize minorities, rape and sexually enslave young girls, behead Western journalists, and plot to commit terror attacks on U.S. soil, an American soldier is serving 20 years at Fort Leavenworth for trying to protect his men while fighting in Afghanistan. With the holiday season upon us, it looks as though...

The 31st Beirut Memorial Observance Ceremony will be held at the Beirut Memorial in the Lejeune Memorial Gardens aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. Thursday, October 23, at 10:30 a.m. The special ceremony will honor the fallen service members and survivors who served in Lebanon from 1958 to 1984 and in Grenada. Major General Richard L. Simcock, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade commanding general, is scheduled to deliver the Beirut memorial address. Scheduled from Oct 23 2014 10:30 AM EDT to Oct 23 2014 12:00 PM EDT

Four NATO troops have been killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, the ISAF confirmed. The blast also killed two Afghan policemen and at least 10 civilians, local police said. Some reports say the NATO soldiers killed in the attack were from the Czech Republic. Earlier Ziaul Rahman Sayedkhili, a senior police officer in the eastern province of Parwan, said the blast had killed six NATO servicemen. He said a joint ISAF-Afghan force was deployed to the village of Qalandar Khil to investigate a rocket attack on a military base, which happened two days ago, and was targeted...

It would be stupid to even think about asking the question: Whose side is Obama on? Anyone who doesn’t know by now must have just returned from a very long vacation. For the record, let the evidence stand to prove that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim and as a Muslim he must wage war against anyone who fights other Muslims. So how does the the so-called Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military wage war against American soldiers who are fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan? By making it difficult for them to fight. For one thing, by changing the Rules...

U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are now forced to fight a two-fronted war. Before each deployment, these soldiers understand fully that day after day they will do battle against relentless terrorists with shifting loyalties and unspeakable hatred. But what none of them could have foreseen was the killing field that would open from their rear: the Continental United States. Our government’s incessant tightening of already restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement), compounded by the failed COIN (Counterinsurgency) strategy—also known as “winning hearts and minds”—has made an otherwise primitive enemy formidable. Our best and brightest come home in body bags as politicians and...

Documents show that on Dec. 14, 2010, Terry's team was on a hill above a ravine. A ground sensor went off alerting them to the approaching smugglers. When agents yelled "police" in Spanish, the smugglers turned and fired. According to the documents, this happened at 11:08 p.m. Just 52 minutes later, Terry would have been relieved by a second BORTAC team and gone home for Christmas. "I saw some members of the group point their weapons at us," Agent Gabriel Fragoza declared to the court. "Agent Castano and I deployed less lethal bean bag rounds as the individuals began to...

The reason for the silly title? The annoyance of seeing "War on Women" flash across a tv screen (MSNBC), earlier this morning as Roe v. Wade was being discussed by talking heads. On the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I happened to read Hot Air linked in the Most Wanted section of FA: “Everyone”? Well, not exactly, but only if you think for more than a few seconds about human biology and the consequences of abortion. The White House put out this statementtoday hailing Roe v Wade on its 41st anniversary: Statement by President Obama on 41st anniversary of...

In a statement marking the controversial Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, President Obama says that "this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams."

(CNSNews.com) - Seventy-four percent of the U.S. military personnel who have given their lives serving in the Afghan War died after Feb. 17, 2009, when President Barack Obama announced his first increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, according to CNSNews.com’s database of U.S. casualties in the war. In the more than twelve years that have passed since U.S. troops first entered Afghanistan with the aim of removing al Qaeda from its sanctuary there, 2,162 U.S. service personnel have given their lives in and around Afghanistan in support of U.S. military activities in that country. 1,593 of...