OPINION

Racists in Charlottesville may have unwittingly given America a truer image of the Confederacy than the 150-year fiction of the Lost Cause.

OPINION

In this case, it appears that his senior advisers were appropriately alarmed by Papadopoulos’ suggestions and shot down the idea of setting up meetings.

OPINION

Republicans’ words are insufficient and, at this point, insufferable.

OPINION

Truman knew there would be no retaliation; he could rely on what Trump cannot: a monopoly on atomic weapons.

OPINION

The president’s calculated tough tone was meant for Asia, where long-lasting regimes promise Americans change in trade or policies and then wait patiently for U.S. politicians to give up or get unelected.

OPINION

If Macedonia doesn’t make it into the EU, it is not difficult to envision a future where the country ends up being picked apart by a variety of pressures from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, in some unknown combination.

OPINION

Living on Guam is a dichotomy — a beautiful island in the middle of the Western Pacific that plays an important strategic role in scary world events.

OPINION

This paradox has left the country’s political landscape as uncertain as ever.

OPINION

Trump recklessly forced an already horrendous confrontation to a potentially even more calamitous level, one that could cause massive tragedy for both North Koreans and America’s trusting allies in Seoul.

OPINION

Luckily for the world, both Trump and Kim are supreme bluffers, and it’s highly unlikely that either party plans to carry through on the threats they’ve issued this week.

OPINION

When governments fund what should be private projects with special tax breaks and subsidies, taxpayers bear the cost.

Last week, a U.S. appeals court threw out the murder conviction of a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard for his role in the deaths of 14 unarmed Iraqis in a Baghdad traffic circle nearly 10 years ago.

Special to the Los Angeles Times

OPINION

As the world ponders the meaning of President Donald Trump’s threat of “fire and fury” on North Korea, it’s worth asking why his predecessors never took those steps to stop its nuclear program.

OPINION

Reagan did not buy into the zero-sum economics behind the Trump immigration proposal, which holds that American-born workers are being displaced by low-skilled immigrants, who are taking their jobs and reducing their wages.

OPINION

Businessman and Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s proposal is dangerous and unlikely to work. It would feed the Taliban’s narrative that Afghanistan is under occupation and that America never cared in the first place.

OPINION

When national security adviser H.R. McMaster says that a nuclear-armed North Korea is “intolerable” to Trump, one should assume he means it — and that he is preparing a menu of military options.

Opinion

As the world worries about the increasing threat from North Korea and its dangerous leader, there is a temptation to believe that the problems will be solved ashore. But it is well worth remembering that Korea is a long peninsula, with approaches dominated by the sea.

OPINION

Children are the least expensive age group to cover, and numerous studies have shown that uninsured children only increase economic health expenditures in the long run.

OPINION

Bringing a flailing West Wing back to basics and to defining the Afghan mission could bring America’s attention back to an otherwise forgotten war.

OPINION

Perhaps the most fervent backlash against "Dunkirk" has come from Indian media, where critics justifiably complain about Hollywood's "whitewashing" of World War II.

OPINION

The information about the veteran is scant, clinical in tone, yet disturbing.

Opinion

Reducing the overall impact on local communities that host bases by correcting the burden imbalance and sharing this burden with other communities is reasonable and extremely significant.

Opinion

According to police, the death of Patrick Casey, an Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan and was in an international studies program at George Washington University, is open and is still actively being investigated.

OPINION

If Latin America’s faltering left is searching for a new script, its leaders would do well to listen to the voices of their constituents, not the noise from Caracas.

OPINION

Trump canceled a government program that wasn’t working. What’s wrong with that? Especially when the alternative was to keep fueling a barbaric conflict with weapons that could one day be turned on us.

OPINION

This past week, like the weeks before it and the weeks to come, is what it will always be like.

OPINION

People across the political spectrum have a hunger to understand those whose views seem the polar opposite of their own.

OPINION

Kelly, who has rendered extraordinary service and sacrifice to the nation, just signed up for what may truly be an impossible mission: bringing discipline, order and strategic focus to the chaos that is the Trump White House.

OPINION

Without a victory somewhere, McConnell, Ryan and Trump won’t have much to show voters in 2018.

OPINION

It seems counterintuitive and dangerous to combat one nation’s nuclear weapons development by encouraging others to get their own. It is. But all reasonable alternatives are foreclosed now.

OPINION

Both Truman and Trump were going against majority opinion when they declared a change in military policy that pertained to a marginalized group. The difference, however, is that Truman sought greater inclusion.

Opinion

According to the New York Times, White House advisors Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner asked Erik D. Prince, a founder of the security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, the owner of the military contractor DynCorp International, to come up with alternatives to sending additional troops to Afghanistan. The newspaper said the two recommended the government rely on private contractors instead of U.S. troops.

OPINION

In Pakistan’s 70 years of existence, not one prime minister has served a full five-year term. They’ve been fired by governor-generals and army chiefs and judges. So it was always fruitless, I expect, to hope that Nawaz Sharif, elected with a massive mandate in 2013, would become the first.

OPINION

I’m hard-pressed to think of another instance in which virtually all senators of one party (save three) declared their inability to make a critically important decision.

OPINION

By acting with maturity, South Korean liberals gained more than impeachment and removal of a conservative president. They created an environment in which the succeeding liberal administration could govern effectively.

OPINION

If Democrats and the president’s worst enemies can begin to silently acknowledge the obvious and move on, perhaps Trump can, too.

OPINION

Most Americans say they’re interested in scientific discoveries, but when it comes to discoveries about hazards and risks of wonder drugs, Americans seem more likely to tune out.

OPINION

Later this year — unless President Donald Trump intervenes — the American people will get access to the last of thousands of secret government files about a turning point in the nation’s history: the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

OPINION

Nobody ever accused the president of subtlety. The question now is, who’s next?

OPINION

Will terrorism against Americans or American interests be eliminated if Afghanistan is a peaceful nation with a government strong enough to defend itself and sustain itself economically?

OPINION

With benefits when they need it for education they can use immediately, our veterans will move from the world’s greatest fighting force to the world’s greatest workforce.

OPINION

There is probable cause to believe the Trump team colluded with Russian interference in the American election; whether that can be traced to Trump is supposed to be up to special counsel Robert Mueller.

OPINION

As for 2017, I have been concluding that I should raise my relative opinion of business and lower my view of government.

OPINION

Trump and his aides sound as if they’re looking for any excuse to get rid of Mueller.

OPINION

Besides voting left, what would the Republicans’ critics have them do? Impeach the president? Not even Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, supports that.

OPINION

Conway is a smart, accomplished woman. So one would hope she’d be out there championing other women, not tearing them down for political expediency.

OPINION

If they want to repeal, replace or merely fix Obamacare, Senate Republicans now have no choice but to try to legislate piecemeal changes the old-fashioned way — with hearings, open debate and even a measure of bipartisanship.

OPINION

There’s no denying that sexual assault on campus was historically underreported and largely unaddressed, but that is no longer the case. The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

OPINION

Relying on generals to determine questions of war and peace creates unrealistic — and troubling — expectations for those same generals to craft policy and oversee, unchecked, a military that was intentionally designed to follow the command of a civilian.

OPINION

Melting polar ice is revealing enormous mineral deposits previously unavailable. That is changing political dynamics both within and between nations.

OPINION

Dissent and critical expression have been chilled, and it seems increasingly clear that Chinese officials aren’t bothered by censure from abroad.

OPINION

Nine years ago, Taliban insurgents attacked me and my squad during a routine mission in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. Those insurgents would have killed us had it not been for Janis Shenwary, our Afghan translator, who shot and killed two of them.

OPINION

But Baghdad opposes talk of secession, and with the United States committed to a one-Iraq policy, it’s going to be an uphill fight.

OPINION

Only the United States has the capacity to be, as retired Adm. Gary Roughead and Kori Schake say in a Brookings Institution study, “guarantors of the global commons — the seaways and airways, and now the cyber conduits.”

OPINION

At this moment, however, neither party looks likely to take responsibility for its own failures, much less for fixing the problem.

OPINION

It wasn’t quite a wicked-witch-is-dead Munchkin happy dance, but the white noise of foregone conclusions drowned out Republicans’ relatively muted regret over their failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.

OPINION

If a political narrative is repeated often enough, backed by a chorus of cheerleaders, it’s very hard to rebut directly.

OPINION

Criminalizing all dumb moves in political campaigns would effectively eviscerate the First Amendment.

OPINION

The fall of Mosul and Raqqa won’t solve the problem that led to ISIS’ rise: the misrule of Sunni Muslim areas by governments in Baghdad and Damascus.

OPINION

Since it lost control of parliament in the national vote in December 2015, the increasingly authoritarian government seems to have concluded that democratic elections are a luxury it can no longer afford.

OPINION

The threat North Korea poses is serious, but not an imminent one to the U.S. homeland.

OPINION

Children are ruining the world, according to recent reporting at least. The overpopulation doomsayers are at it again.

OPINION

As the Manhattan Project showed, perseverance and resources matter.

Opinion

Thumbs up to the Waseca County Free Fair, which this week provided a platform for two surviving members of the fabled Tuskegee Airmen squadron to tell their remarkable stories.

Opinion

MARSOC may not be a familiar military acronym to most Americans. Marine Raiders, a far more stirring name, goes back to World War II and is associated with some of the most daring exploits in the Pacific theater. Marines are tough. Raiders are their best. There are only 2,700. Thirty-one Raiders have been killed in combat since 2006. These losses are costly.

OPINION

Engulfed by a plethora of challenges, the European Union has clearly relegated the integration of the western Balkans to the back burner.

OPINION

What fear could motivate such cruelty?

OPINION

That there is relatively little organic reaction to the president’s criticisms outside of offended newsrooms is the best proof of the merits of Trump’s complaints.

OPINION

The list of Trump’s boasts are endless.

OPINION

A veteran wouldn’t give that treasure away. A veteran would protect it, fight for it and preserve it for all Americans, for all generations.

OPINION

Their defeat diminishes the inspiration for violent extremists, or simply lost souls on social media, to attack Americans and our friends.

OPINION

Speaking moderately doesn’t mean being without conviction. The moderate must speak firmly to both sides.

OPINION

Pence’s activities seem to signal doubts about whether there will even be a Trump-Pence ticket to run in 2020.

OPINION

Whether Russian efforts made a difference in the vote tally, they should certainly make a difference in America’s view of its president.

OPINION

The media have a bad habit of turning themselves into the story.

OPINION

The marriage of local ground forces with U.S. drones, warplanes and intelligence has been potent.

OPINION

The small band of moderate Republicans is objecting to the substance and optics of giving goodies to the rich while slicing social programs. Fiscal hawks are fretting over spiraling deficits even as supply-side colleagues and those representing special interests believe most any tax cut is good.

OPINION

Trump finally made it clear that he accepts the 68-year-old obligation to defend NATO countries from Russian pressure.

OPINION

If your country is at the bottom of a well-respected scorecard for “Ease of Doing Business,” you might find that international businesses start to avoid investing in your economy.

OPINION

The key to helping older workers find jobs is to reduce the costs of letting them go.

Opinion

Over the Fourth of July holiday, National Public Radio tweeted out the exact text of the Declaration of Independence, and some took it as a political statement and radical call against the current administration.

OPINION

In essence, Trump called on Poland to help the United States in the struggle of Western civilization against Islamist terrorism — though at times he made it sound as if the real enemy were cultural, not political.

OPINION

Kim Jong Un appears to believe his regime is resilient enough as it is as long as the U.S. cannot use military force against it. Because of that, further sanctions won’t change his calculus.

OPINION

It is easy to ignore not only the speed at which disruption caused by technology is affecting society but the acceleration in the pace of change. This acceleration and its effect on markets, companies and labor is astonishing.

OPINION

The decline of physical retail will thus force the U.S. to rethink its entire idea of what a city is for. Why do people live near each other, if not to shop at the same places?

Military update

Veterans’ online exchange shopping, currently in beta testing, is set to open for millions of honorably discharged veterans on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.