OPINION

Many scientists and public officials also cite global warming, including Gov. Gavin Newsom. They may be right. But lightning was around long before we started burning fossil fuel.

OPINION

More than any other Allied commander, MacArthur understood that the Pacific War was a contest of ideas as well as arms. Simply winning was not enough; Japan’s imperialist ideology had to be discredited and replaced with something better.

OPINION

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, like every American, deserved to have his actions judged, not on the campaign trail, not on cable news, but in a court of law.

OPINION

Midwestern states are relatively less exposed to the industries that have gotten hurt the worst.

OPINION

Unlike most other measures, masks don’t cost much and don’t interrupt our usual activities: They are among the cheapest, simplest and most effective ways to fight the virus and get the economy running again.

OPINION

As you watch the presidential contest and hear about the latest poll, keep in mind what happened in 2016 — how groups turned out and how they voted. Is President Donald Trump doing better or worse than he did four years ago?

OPINION

Trump is behind in the polls, and this was an opportunity to reach out beyond his strongest supporters. But there was nothing new here; even had it been well-written and well-delivered and well-staged, it was just a laundry list — a very long laundry list — of his usual lines.

Recently, I decided to change my “lurker” status, and post something in a popular military spouse Facebook group to which I belong. In my first post to the group, I asked how military families had been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

OPINION

Rather than getting pulled into a reactionary race, we can use this moment to act strategically, on our own terms. We must identify our security gaps in the Arctic and invest in the foundational capabilities that will enable us to close our deficiencies in Arctic communications, domain awareness, enabling infrastructure, and general presence.

OPINION

Syria’s systemic issues can’t be resolved by the U.S. military — nor should Washington make the grave error of thinking Syria’s fractious politics is a U.S. problem.

OPINION

Thanks to her biography of growing up in a communist regime and hating it, Merkel values truth and freedom, and she understands that “the West” only lives as an idea, one that couldn’t survive the abolition of reality.

OPINION

While the federal government is working to respond, some of the challenges our military and veteran families are facing require more than a budgetary fix. We require a cultural shift in which civilians better understand and support these families — support that, in turn, also buttresses our nation’s national security.

OPINION

It sure seems as if the convention and Biden’s speech did what they had to do for those who were looking for reasons to support him.

OPINION

Sports teach leadership, real-time decision-making, psychology, intuition, discipline and talent identification, among other valuable skills. That those skills are embodied in a physically competitive setting makes them no less valuable.

OPINION

U.S. government leaders must reinforce current actions with a sustained strategy to limit and restrain China’s expansion. This should include naval and air maneuvers, closer Taiwan ties, reinforcing alliance with Japan, and noncommercial exchanges with Hong Kong,

OPINION

Debate preparation has to be Biden’s top personal campaign priority, given the massive television audiences and the potential for high-level impact.

OPINION

Above all, the deal is worrisome to Iran, because it reflects the Arab world’s growing recognition of Persian Iran’s long-term threat: its growing population and its persistent campaign to consolidate influence in Syria, parts of Iraq and other the Shiite Arab states.

OPINION

The war had tremendous impacts on our country on many levels.

OPINION

Putin’s desire to see the uprising in Belarus fail is more important than sticking it to a former client who has sought independence. If Russians see their neighbors defying a dictator, it could give them ideas about defying their own.

OPINION

Recent developments in China, including what comes out of its propaganda apparatus, suggest that at least one side is not ruling out a hot war. And that should concern everyone — more than any diplomatic tensions or saber-rattling on the surface.

OPINION

Any individual injury is a cause for concern. When tallied across the entire armed forces, chronic noncombat injuries create incredible challenges to long-term readiness.

OPINION

If you are confronting the challenge of converting to a virtual model, here is a framework that worked for us.

OPINION

Our armed forces take risks and make sacrifices every day. They shouldn’t have the added concern that their jobs will give them cancer.

OPINION

The one thing we’ve known how to do since the arrival of TV in American living rooms in the 1950s is use it to affect behavior. Why didn’t we do it this time?

COLUMN

The pandemic and its accompanying contraction is a painful and uncertain experience all across the country. But one good thing has come of it: It has tilted some leverage to athletes, on whom so many overpaid livings depend.

OPINION

The temptation to moralize is one of the strongest human propensities. When we feel it, however, we should recognize that it stems from the same kind of reckless impatience that worsened our response to COVID-19 in the first place.

OPINION

By seeking to dissolve the NRA, the New York attorney general is knowingly creating a narrative that is potentially costly to the rule of law, that may create terrible precedents for other states and that potentially implicates the First Amendment.

OPINION

Can online learning reduce the problem of self-censorship? All of a sudden, with the coronavirus changing how students engage with one another and their professors, that’s a pertinent question.

OPINION

Most Lebanese will assume the ammonium nitrate belonged to the militia, for use in Syria and against Israel.

OPINION

The kinds of interventions used to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in stores are unlikely to be helpful at polling places if people still have to wait hours to vote.

OPINION

In the physical world, work at a company or university exists in a hierarchical structure; in a virtual world, that work can get done in a more decentralized, democratic manner. Those who lacked influence suddenly can acquire much greater visibility and prominence, all without the approval of traditional gatekeepers. This potential for expanded participation from previously excluded voices is an underappreciated disruption that could change the way society operates.

OPINION

One of the defining features of the Trump years has been the collapse of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy. There is at least one notable exception, however: support for a democratic transition in Venezuela.

OPINION

Sports are back not because they know it's safe, not because they know it's right, not because they are evangelical about the value of their entertainment. They are just doing what they know: play, make money, repeat, never quit.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, people have sought information to quell fear. Over the past five months, the advice given by “experts” has fluctuated wildly, despite having been given with seemingly well-informed confidence. By now, I think we realize that it’s all baloney, bunk, BS.

OPINION

Vaccine development can’t come in a vacuum. It needs to be combined with addressing the social and political factors that exacerbate disease and limit the access of many Americans to basic medical care.

OPINION

The Democratic Party’s draft platform for the 2020 election cycle sees the world as I did when I was a Model United Nations delegate: a place where foreign policy is a vessel for pious intentions, and informed by the common good.

OPINION

Her speech will mobilize and energize women, in particular, for whom Rep. Yoho’s language represents not a random mistake but the interior monologue of a political party that is led by a man who sounds just like Yoho.

OPINION

To cultivate minority military families’ sense of belonging and safety in their communities — and thereby support mission readiness — the military will eventually need to go beyond symbolic changes. For now, the least we can do as a military community is to continue to affirm that African American military families belong.

OPINION

You probably are asking yourself, about now, “What are 15 signs my country is sliding into authoritarianism?”

OPINION

One way of remaking race is through spelling — using or not using capital letters. A more potent way, of course, is through behavior.

When the discussion turns to which countries have responded best to COVID-19 — and if nothing else, the pandemic frees up a lot of time for this debate — those most often mentioned are Taiwan, New Zealand and Vietnam. I would like to make a more surprising nomination: the U.K. COVID-19 is a potential scourge to billions around the globe, so the pertinent question is which country has done the most to stop it.

OPINION

To imagine that keeping Sudan on the terrorism-sponsors list will ward off counter-revolutionary forces is to greatly exaggerate American leverage — and to underestimate the protest movement that brought down Omar al-Bashir.

OPINION

While my struggles aren’t over, my ability to use an ABLE account to pay for health services has changed my life in a powerful way.

I used to have a good grasp on parenting. From the time our three children were infants, through toddlerhood, the primary school years and even the dreaded teenage years, I used a fairly successful combination of expert-recommended techniques, mother’s intuition and common sense to raise our children. But now that they are adults, I am dumbfounded.

OPINION

Politicians continue to present a false choice between two health pandemics unleashed by COVID-19, arguing that we must either fight the virus or stem the mental health fallout triggered by record unemployment and strict lockdowns.

I don’t recall exactly what I was doing that morning 37 years ago — probably at home wrangling my big hair with a curling iron and applying frosted purple eye shadow — but I remember ending up on the courthouse steps at noon, dressed in a red robe. I was in the second row of my high school’s choir, waiting for our cue to sing “America the Beautiful.” Thousands of onlookers waved flags and welcome home banners, honoring the man who prompted all this hubbub. Jimmy Stewart, Hollywood actor and hometown hero, had returned to quaint Indiana, Pa., to celebrate his 75th birthday.

President Donald Trump recently began demanding that schools open in the fall. It’s a successor to his demand in the spring that the economy reopen full throttle, and it looks like it will be similarly ignored.

Living overseas during two military tours of duty in Europe provided our family with unique opportunities to learn about various cultures firsthand. We didn’t have to imagine what it would be like to be European, we simply lived it. Although some Americans shy away from sampling local foods, regional cuisine was an integral part of our overseas adventure.

Prior to writing this column, I had never taken a test like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which has been used for decades in the military and other organizations to assess personality. I had always assumed I was an introvert, because over the course of 23 years as a Navy spouse, I spent so much time by myself. I mistakenly thought my loner personality was the reason why it was difficult to make friends every time we PCSed. Turns out, I was wrong.

OPINION

So far, the Taliban haven’t made a case for any economic or political plans, except to state their goal of reestablishing an Islamic emirate.

OPINION

The issues concerning prejudice, discrimination, diversity and inclusion will probably not go away in my lifetime. However, the issue concerning the extremely low number of Hispanic Americans in the senior ranks is the result of a total lack of leadership awareness within our armed forces.

OPINION

South Korea’s remarkable domestic accomplishments have unfolded while the country becomes increasingly influential in global arenas.

OPINION

So many of the advanced technologies that will be critical to fighting and winning future wars are extremely energy-intensive; that means winning the wars of the future will require concentrated sources of always-on, assured energy.