Is it Jaw-Jaw or War With Iran?

"Jaw-jaw is better than war-war," is attributed, wrongly, say some historians, to Winston Churchill. Still, the words lately came to mind. While last week ended with a hopeful U.S.-Iranian prisoner exchange that was hailed by President Donald Trump -- "Thank you to Iran for a very fair ...

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, It’s US vs. China Now

At first glance, it would appear that five months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong had produced a stunning triumph. By September, the proposal of city leader Carrie Lam that ignited the protests -- to allow criminal suspects to be extradited to China for trial -- had been withdrawn. And ...

NATO HQ, Brussels

Is Macron Right? Is NATO, 70, Brain Dead?

A week from now, the 29 member states of "the most successful alliance in history" will meet to celebrate its 70th anniversary. Yet all is not well within NATO. Instead of a "summit," the gathering, on the outskirts of London, has been cut to two days. Why the shortened agenda? Among the reasons, ...

What’s Behind Our World on Fire?

When the wildfires of California broke out across the Golden State, many were the causes given. Negligence by campers. Falling power lines. Arson. A dried-out land. Climate change. Failure to manage forests, prune trees and clear debris, leaving fuel for blazes ignited. Abnormally high winds ...

Bernie Leads His Party to Open Borders

Some 100 members of an American Mormon community in northern Mexico, nine of whom -- women, children, toddlers -- were massacred a week ago on a lonely stretch of highway, just crossed over into Arizona. Other family members who have lived there for decades will follow. The atrocity was the ...

Where Are the ‘High Crimes’?

"Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." These are the offenses designated in the Constitution for which presidents may be impeached and removed from office. Which of these did Trump commit? According to his accusers in this city, his crime is as follows: The president ...

Is Trump Facing a 1960s-Style Revolt?

Sunday morning, President Trump announced that the world's worst terrorist, the head of the ISIS caliphate who had raped an American woman, had received justice. About to be captured and carried off in a helicopter by U.S. special forces, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi blew himself up with an explosive vest ...

Is Democracy a Dying Species?

What happens when democracy fails to deliver? What happens when people give up on democracy? What happens when a majority or militant minority decide that the constitutional rights of free speech, free elections, peaceful assembly and petition are inadequate and take to the streets to force ...

Is the Interventionists’ Era Over for Good?

President Donald Trump could have been more deft and diplomatic in how he engineered that immediate pullout from northeastern Syria. Yet that withdrawal was as inevitable as were its consequences. A thousand U.S. troops and their Kurdish allies were not going to dominate indefinitely the entire ...

The White House

Is Impeachment Now Inevitable?

"There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader," is a remark attributed to a French politician during the turbulent times of 1848. Joe Biden's Wednesday declaration that President Donald Trump should be impeached is in that tradition. Joe is scrambling to get out in front of the ...