Op-Ed Columns
My president
There’s an old story about a Harvard professor who gets a call from the president (of the United States) and responds that his president is the president of Harvard. (Updated: 11/08/09 8:29 AM )
Leftovers from Tuesday’s scraps
A plate full of leftovers from a most delectable election: (Updated: 11/08/09 8:29 AM )
Population boomerang in Iran
Iranian students were engaged last week in Round Two of their street-level struggle for reform. Round One took place last June, when young people protested the fixed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Updated: 11/08/09 8:29 AM )
Why we celebrate
We thought it meant the end of international contention. We thought it meant the nuclear menace was no more. We thought it meant Russia and America, the two powers of the future envisioned by de Tocqueville, could be friends. We thought it meant the end of espionage. We thought it might even be the end of history. (Updated: 11/07/09 8:38 AM )
The myth of ’08 demolished
WASHINGTON — Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday’s elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008. (Updated: 11/07/09 8:38 AM )
Killing the messengers
Anthony McKinney got a life sentence for running down the street. (Updated: 11/07/09 8:38 AM )
AfPak strategy must-have elements
I’m headed back to Afghanistan and Pakistan at a critical juncture, one which will shape President Obama’s foreign-policy legacy. The president will have to roll out his AfPak strategy very soon and explain it to the American public. His long review has fed the perception in South Asia that the United States is heading for the exit, which adds to the Taliban’s momentum. (Updated: 11/06/09 6:58 AM )
The coming health care rollout
WASHINGTON — The next health care fight has already started. It’s the battle to define the bill that President Obama will eventually sign as a victory for consumers, taxpayers and the common good. (Updated: 11/06/09 6:58 AM )
Down this road before
WASHINGTON — The opium poppy was introduced to Afghanistan more than 2,300 years ago by the armies of Alexander the Great. His forces were eventually driven out, like those of every would-be conqueror since. The poppy has proved more tenacious. (Updated: 11/06/09 6:58 AM )
George F. Will: Our stranger in Kabul
WASHINGTON — Actress Cate Blanchett, who has played Queen Elizabeth I, is performing here, portraying someone less than regal — flurried, anxious Blanche Du-Bois, in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” If Obama administration officials involved in formulating Afghanistan policy see her, they should wince when she speaks DuBois’ signature line: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” (Updated: 11/05/09 9:20 AM )
Mitch Albom: Nice to meet you, not your germs
The news anchor shakes my hand. “So glad you could make it,” he says. Then he turns, still talking, and presses the nozzle on the hand sanitizer. (Updated: 11/05/09 9:20 AM )
David Ignatius: The two faces of Afghan strategy
BARAKI BARAK, Afghanistan — Hikmatullah, a tall Pashtun farmer dressed in turban and white cloak, looks slightly bewildered as a U. S. Army officer offers him tea and bread and questions him about what he wants from life. A crowd has gathered around them on the steps of the local bakery, young boys and old tribesmen gawking to see what the fuss is about. (Updated: 11/05/09 9:25 AM )
Kathleen Parker: Saving the news
WASHINGTON — Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death row inmate counting the warden’s footsteps. (Updated: 11/04/09 1:55 PM )
Clarence Page: ‘Death panel’ myth won’t die
Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor-turned- blogger, cannot see Russia from her house, as Tina Fey’s version of her claimed in a “Saturday Night Live” skit. But she is poking this country’s politics from her laptop. (Updated: 11/04/09 11:02 AM )
Trudy Rubin: When Kerry met Karzai
Whatever Afghanistan strategy President Obama chooses will hinge on whether U. S. officials can work with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. U. S. frustration at Karzai’s failure to rein in corruption, which feeds Taliban gains, has been building. It peaked over the blatant rigging of the presidential election in August. (Updated: 11/04/09 11:03 AM )
