The issue: The Iraqis want to buy more U.S. arms, have them delivered quickly and be accompanied by U.S. training teams The U.S. military can be an enormously useful institution as the government of Iraq is discovering — or rediscovering — as renewed sectarian violence brings the country closer to civil war. THE VIOLENCE is […]

The issue: Intelligence leaker applies for asylum but finds no welcome mats Maybe by the time you read this, some obliging country will have given intelligence leaker Edward Snowden asylum, perhaps with a tacit nod from the United States that it’s OK with Washington as long as the nation giving him refuge makes him shut […]

The issue: ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ won out, and we celebrate that victory of ideals every year The signers of the Declaration of Independence felt that “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” required them to explain why 13 thinly populated states clinging to the Atlantic coast should declare themselves independent […]

The issue: Both U.S., EU leaders face a difficult sales job in home countries The best thing to come out of the Group of Eight economic summit in Northern Ireland may be the start of negotiations eventually leading to a United States-European Union free trade pact, creating a bloc covering half the world’s economy. THE […]

The issue: Justices rule that affirmative action must meet tougher standards The increasingly conservative Supreme Court did not throw out the use of race as a factor in determining college admission, as some had feared. But in announcing their 7-1 decision last week, the justices sent the University of Texas’ race-sensitive admissions case back to […]

The issue: Progress isn’t always marked by trumpets and flowers It is probably quintessentially American that a landmark Supreme Court ruling on a question of morality originated in a dispute over federal taxes. PERHAPS Edith Windsor didn’t intend to upset a cultural and religious tradition that had stood largely unquestioned for hundreds of years. Maybe […]

The issue: This dream more distant than ever President Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin contained so many elements that commentators were calling it a “smorgasbord,” but before the speech was delivered, White House aides were drawing reporters’ attention to his call for nuclear reductions, according to the Associated Press, “calling it the centerpiece of his address.” […]

The issue: The stink bug isn’t an immigrant success story Uninvited and unwanted, this stealth migrant slipped into the United States a dozen years ago hidden in cargo from Asia. LIKE OTHER VISITORS to our shores, it quickly prospered, finding outlets for its considerable energies in the fruit orchards and vegetable fields of the mid-Atlantic […]

The issue: When it comes to typing, they’re all thumbs Among those lost skills like using a standard transmission, making a call on a rotary phone or adjusting the rabbit ears on the TV may soon be included the ability to type on the traditional QWERTY keyboard. A whole generation now types only with their […]

The issue: Young and old alike want services without paying for them We are as willing as anybody to step on the fingers of younger generations trying to climb the ladder of success behind us and to believe that — with their different tastes in dress, music and jargon — they represent a pause in […]

The issue: It’s a long shot, but negotiations could be fruitful Since 1973, when King Mohammed Zahir Shah was ousted in a bloodless coup by his communist brother-in-law, pessimism about Afghanistan has generally not gone unrewarded. BUT HOPE in Afghanistan, if not exactly springing eternal, does come to life every few years, and so it […]

The issue: But justices do leave a window open for state The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot add on their own additional red-tape requirements before issuing a federal registration form entitling the holder to vote. THE NATIONAL Voter Registration Act of 1993, the so-called “Motor Voter Act,” allowed applicants to register to vote […]

The issue: We owe it to Iraqis and now Afghanis to stand by our word In Afghanistan, the Taliban have promised to kill Afghanis who worked for the Americans and their families. In Iraq, similar threats were made by radical Islamic insurgents. They were not idle threats. The terrorists proved quite diligent in carrying out […]

The issue: President Obama pulls the plug on lawmakers’ picnic President Barack Obama basically derailed his “charm offensive” — not that this particular PR operation was having its desired effect anyway — by postponing until fall the annual White House congressional picnic. THE EVENT IS traditionally held in June. Lawmakers’ children are out of school […]