Free Republic

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 1, 2006) -- More than 100 years have passed since the fastest pistol-drawing gunfighters dominated the saloons and streets of the American West. Halfway around the world, a different kind of gunfighter is leaving its own mark on insurgent forces in Iraq's own wild west, the Al Anbar Province of Iraq. Known as the Gunfighters, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, have been patrolling the Iraqi skies with UH-1N Huey and AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters for nearly seven months, ready to fire their deadly suite of weapons...

LONDON (AFP) - Soviet dictator Stalin was a madman who could have benefited from a psychiatrist's attention and millions of lives could have been saved, a British researcher claimed. Stalin, who ruled Russia from 1924 until his death in 1953, suffered from dementia caused by heart attacks, according to Dr George El-Nimr. "This (Stalin's dementia) might be an explanation for the florid paranoia, dimming of his superior intellect and the unleashing of his most sadistic personality traits," Nimr told the annual conference of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Harrogate in northern England. Nimr and two colleagues, Dr Baseem Habeeb...