OPINION

You can espouse a border wall, family deportation and “zero tolerance,” as Trump does; that doesn’t excuse cruelty to children, whether by incompetence or design.

OPINION

Tying a withdrawal to a successful political resolution paves the way for a stalled exit, given that prospects for actual, long-term peace in Afghanistan remain poor.

OPINION

Acosta should step down from his Cabinet position for dereliction of duty in his prior role — and because he has the spine of a mollusk.

OPINION

The Democrats’ stance is important because the U.S.-Iran standoff has now entered a dangerous phase of escalation and brinkmanship bargaining.

OPINION

The memos are shocking because they show the dysfunction and ineptitude at the heart of Britain’s own governing institutions.

OPINION

To the lengthy list of issues that divide Republicans from Democrats, add this seemingly nonpartisan question: How proud are you to be an American? We shall find out soon enough which appeal — pride-promotion or shame-elimination — carries the day politically.

OPINION

In the children’s classic, Alice provides impressive examples of calm pragmatism. The British need those qualities now.

OPINION

Like Saddam Hussein before him, Mohammed bin Salman has concluded that he is immune.

OPINION

It’s never a good time to start using tobacco products and never too late to quit — your health, your performance, and your country depend on it.

OPINION

One cannot unring a bell and California Sen. Kamala Harris cannot erase the fact that she has repeatedly said she wants to take from 217 million Americans something most of them like.

OPINION

The immigration debate would go better if the focus could shift to legal, publicly recognized rights to citizenship, later to be declared openly in response to governmental inquiries.

OPINION

The stepped-up repression is being carried out through a series of Chinese military, political, economic and surveillance programs that constitute the most comprehensive system of population control and oppression anywhere in the world today.

OPINION

There are countless tales of POWs whose strength through faith is what enabled them to persevere and endure the unimaginable.

OPINION

The resonance of the Declaration of Independence might be in its universality, but its power derives from its ability to speak to changing circumstances.

OPINION

Credibility is less a function of using force than of demonstrating prudence.

OPINION

It is striking and sad that there is so much over-the-top criticism of social media yet so little faith in education as a possible remedy.

OPINION

Iran’s announcement Monday that it has surpassed the limit of low-enriched uranium it could stockpile under the 2015 nuclear agreement is an important development.

OPINION

The “budget constraint” — economic jargon for the need to fit spending priorities within limited resources — has become a nonfactor in American government and politics.

OPINION

Kamala Harris and Marianne Williamson were the most memorable candidates on the stage.

OPINION

As Trump continues to promise great deals without actually completing any, other actors in world politics are not standing still.

OPINION

For far too long, federal policy has focused solely on helping people through increasing spending on rental assistance.

OPINION

In particular, the war launched a new style of economic blockade.

OPINION

One day before Minu Aghevli testified at a House committee hearing about official Department of Veterans Affairs misconduct, she received a thick packet of documents that shook her life.

OPINION

Savvy consumers have long understood that it is almost always better to borrow independently, but regulators have the ability to make sure all car buyers get a fair deal, no matter where they shop for financing.

OPINION

Trump promised he would name “the best people” to top posts. But since the transition period preceding his inauguration, more than four dozen choices for top executive branch posts or judgeships have been forced to withdraw.

OPINION

If he does so, he will leave his summit colleagues less room to disagree with him — and the Iranian regime with no illusions about his intentions.

OPINION

In a political epoch that rewards authenticity and boldness, candidate after candidate in the first Democratic presidential debate embraced the populism they believe Democratic voters desire.

OPINION

Several Democrats have made freedom from certain negative aspects of American life major points of their campaigns, advancing a vision of freedom that is something that arises when harmful inhibitors are swept away.

OPINION

Several current trends among millennials do not bode well for Democrats. Indeed, they suggest a greater affinity for (many) Republican policies, notwithstanding a, perhaps, contiguous dislike for the GOP’s leadership.

OPINION

Beijing’s formula for modernization flaunts western rules for international competition it agreed to accept when it joined the World Trade Organization and which also required changes in its domestic statutes.

OPINION

There’s no sense in sugar-coating it: At this point, many Americans believe the war has lost its purpose.

OPINION

No matter how the current crisis between the United States and Iran turns out, it should have one result: an end to the fear that President Donald Trump would be a warmonger in the Oval Office.

OPINION

Every new proposal for “dialogue” between the Maduro regime and the opposition simply causes another stampede of refugees for the border, one senior diplomat grimly observed. That mounting mass exodus is the real mover of the crisis.

OPINION

What Sanders offers as forward-looking socialism is a warmed-over version of what President Franklin Roosevelt advocated 75 years ago.

The bloody three-month siege of Kohima took place in the Himalayan foothills of Nagaland, in northeast India. Though the allied victory against the Japanese was a major turning point on par with the Battle of Stalingrad, we won't see world leaders travel to Kohima for its remembrance.

OPINION

For deterrence to work, a would-be adversary must believe that his attack plans will fail, or that he will incur unacceptable punishment after an attack. And yet, thus far, these attacks have gone unanswered by the Trump administration.

OPINION

A handful of entrepreneurial scientists, many of whom have spent their careers studying the reefs that are dying before their eyes, are devising extreme measures to try to save the world’s corals.

OPINION

Of course, we can’t develop coping mechanisms for the Internet if we’re too busy panicking. At least one scientist has already questioned the accuracy of the horns research, but that doesn’t decrease its allure.

OPINION

China’s government persists in trying to censor and control. However, global commercial and political tides are moving in the opposite direction.

OPINION

Trump’s tirades fuel his base but also drive away others who cannot countenance his misconduct.

OPINION

It’s not as though the justices don’t have ideas about the underlying meaning and purpose of the establishment clause. Rather, they do but they are at near-violent opposition.

OPINION

Trump favors unilateralism over alliances that carry obligations and responsibilities. The paradox, of course, is that anyone who disclaims any interest in being the world’s policeman needs allies.

OPINION

Mattis often tried to stop Trump from committing egregious errors. Shanahan was more often an enabler instead of a check on the president’s worst instincts.

OPINION

The nominal reason was a nearly decade-old domestic abuse case involving Shanahan’s son and ex-wife, but the larger issue was Trump’s waffling support of the acting secretary.

OPINION

The issue is that Harvard has standards for admission that include not making wildly offensive comments, and Kyle Kashuv’s behavior in high school failed to meet them.

OPINION

It’s common across the national media to see Biden pegged as the safest candidate for Democrats to put up to unseat Trump.

OPINION

The undue influence of the corporate world — through threat of boycott and economic blackmail — to disrupt the democratic process has accelerated. And it’s starting to make me angry.

OPINION

Compartmentalize and weaponize. That’s the lesson congressional Democrats should take from 1998.

OPINION

The senator stacks the deck when it comes to our political choices too. He posits a world in which the phenomenon of left-wing authoritarianism has never existed.

Opinion

The practice of patenting genes, once banned by the Supreme Court, may come back soon despite a measure of horror the very idea once inspired. Author Michael Crichton warned of the evils of gene patents in his 2006 novel "Next" and, more directly, in a 2007 New York Times commentary piece.

Commentary

As musical epithets go, it’s hard to say whether "dad rock" is more insulting to the dads or the rock. It’s a term that’s been flung at everyone from Pavement to the Eagles, and it’s most often used to describe a multigenerational swath of rock ’n’ roll that no longer feels angry enough at the world to want to change it. Or if not that, maybe it’s just mature rock music made by and for chill, white dads.

Opinion

The criteria for running for or being president shouldn’t vary with age, and age doesn’t tell you what you need to know to determine a person’s intellectual, emotional, physical or experiential fitness for office, whether that person is 38 or 90.

Members of Congress shouldn't get special treatment. They ought to live like us, be like us, share in our struggles and inconveniences. Nevertheless, the time has come to give them a raise. The American public, particularly those who make the least, deserve one too. So why can’t we do them together?

Opinion

There are bound to be some students who knew exactly what their parents were up to. For kids who were complicit, there’s no reason for sympathy. They were participants in a fraud, and cannot be permitted to keep their ill-gotten gains. But if news reports are to be believed, many of the young people whose parents were caught up in the scandal didn’t know what was being done on their behalf.

Opinion

The VA, Department of Defense and other agencies have implemented community integration resources for veterans and servicemembers to become more connected to mental health professionals and the services they offer, but there needs to be increased awareness of these services.

Opinion

Newsweek’s Jack Kroll said “Alien” would “scare the peanuts right out of your M&M’s.” He was right.

Opinion

The symbolic tree that President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron planted at the White House last year has died.

OPINION

The citizen-soldiers of D-Day were men who had occupations or plans for occupations before the war. Some had been groomed to run family businesses. Some were fishers or machinists. Others had just entered college. They had mixed reactions to being drafted or enlisting, but most of them left behind their livelihoods to defend their country.

OPINION

Under the surface, the world's largest alliance is extremely uneasy. And it is uneasy, to put it simply, because the U.S. president makes it uneasy.

OPINION

Power in global politics is not dealt from a deck of cards but is a function of state policy. Vladimir Putin has now been leading his country for almost 20 years. If anyone has made Russia's hand weak, it's him.

OPINION

Despite what you may have read, the United States' strategy toward China does not entail launching another Cold War, imposing a zero-sum game or even winning a "clash of civilizations."

OPINION

If ever there was a moment for some tough love between allies, it is now. America, and most of Europe for that matter, is calling for the generals currently in control of Sudan to cede power to civilians and prepare for elections. Three U.S. allies — Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — back the generals.

OPINION

Snoopy, who first appeared in the "Peanuts" comic strip in 1950, has been everywhere at this point: summer camp, college, the desert to visit his hapless brother Spike. He's been to the airfields of World War I in his unceasing fight with the Red Baron, and even to the moon with the crew of Apollo 10.

OPINION

When people are told which way to turn, it relieves them of the need to create their own routes and remember them. They pay less attention to their surroundings. And neuroscientists can now see that brain behavior changes when people rely on turn-by-turn directions.

OPINION

My dad never talked about fleeing the Nazis as a teenager. He never mentioned his Jewish heritage. He only rarely and reluctantly talked about serving in World War II. He never wore his medals of valor on his sleeve, literally or figuratively.

OPINION

Congress has a duty to ensure the VA is holding up its end of the bargain to the women who have sacrificed so much to keep us safe.

OPINION

Veterans have much better access to care for both addiction and mental health issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, which is often at the root of a substance use disorder.

OPINION

Eisenhower never lost awareness of the terrible human costs of war, borne primarily by the enlisted ranks. He constantly stressed the fundamentally important role of the combat soldier, and regularly went to see troops in the field.

OPINION

War can be fatal to the victors as well as the vanquished, especially if the conflict is prolonged. For both Sparta and Athens, their failure to set emotions aside and negotiate doomed them to decline.

OPINION

So please, stop apologizing for living your lives.

OPINION

Not everything in the United States is about race, but sometimes race is more involved than meets the eye.

OPINION

Congress should think very hard before impeaching Trump for the high crime of being who we knew he was before we elected him.

OPINION

Every time America raises the heat, Iran grows more desperate and more likely to use its proxies to inflict harm or resume its nuclear activities.

OPINION

By doing his job, Bill Clinton saved his presidency. Even in this polarized environment, there are still opportunities for Donald Trump to do the same.

OPINION

Statistical evidence suggests Democratic voters are less liberal than the activists.

OPINION

Much of the world manages a pretty fruitful balance between moral cosmopolitanism and practical nationalism. There is a wisdom embodied in this lived experience that neither pundits nor philosophers can convey.

OPINION

That people working for our president went out of their way to try to make sure that Trump saw no reminders of McCain while on his visit to Japan is more than the usual outrage of the day.

OPINION

To win, he needs a villain to blame for these unfulfilled promises and he is casting impeachment-mad Democrats for the role.

OPINION

An experienced user and consumer of both print and electronic media over many years, Trump thinks he knows better than any communications professionals. Actually, he knows he knows better.

OPINION

What was the meaning of Mueller’s cryptic performance? Most fundamentally, Mueller wanted to take himself out of public discourse — forever.

OPINION

The FBI wasn’t out to get Donald Trump. It also wasn’t out to get Hillary Clinton. It was out to do its best to investigate serious matters while walking through a vicious political minefield.

OPINION

The mission to keep Iraq independent is as urgent as ever — and America’s continued engagement is key because, even while news of Iraq has fallen off of the front pages, Iraq’s position remains precarious.

OPINION

We sincerely appreciate your service and the continuing sacrifices that you and your family make in defense of democracy. As the 2020 presidential election approaches, please know that I am committed to helping you participate in it.

OPINION

If and when journalists read the best analysis to date of the second part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, they’ll be in for a shock.

OPINION

It’s a testament to just how much time has passed that their children are the baby boomers now old enough to be passing into retirement themselves.

OPINION

Today’s discussion treats impeachment as a trivialized gambit within the ordinary game of electoral politics. The undermining of the constitutional ideal is near-total.

OPINION

Too soon, the burden of remembering will be passed along to those who did not experience such things firsthand. The post-9/11 veteran generation must recognize its promise to uphold the honor and dignity of their sacrifice, while sharing our own.