OPINION

It’s a mistake to treat polling data as mere briefing material; it’s actionable information.

OPINION

Instead of encouraging more cooperation, Trump and his Wall have poisoned the well.

OPINION

Realistically, of course, these second chances will be applied selectively.

OPINION

Ten years ago, President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to open a new dialogue with the world’s Muslims. On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Cairo to offer a rebuttal.

OPINION

Saudi Arabia has been pleased by its reinvigorated partnership with the United States during the administration of President Donald Trump. But the Saudi leadership has put itself in danger of becoming a partisan flashpoint in U.S. politics, which would be disastrous for both countries.

OPINION

His supporters may not abandon him over it, but Trump’s re-election hinges entirely on their enthusiasm.

OPINION

Neither the American people nor the U.S. military seems to perceive the significance of what China is doing strategically in the Earth-moon space.

OPINION

Without U.S. support, the SDF will be in a battle for survival, degrading the group’s ability to oversee the detention of ISIS fighters or complete the mission to eradicate the terrorist group in the region.

OPINION

A handful of Iranian combatants in waters close to the U.S. will not send our navy to general quarters, nor should it.

OPINION

Xi could potentially use China’s leverage over North Korea as a valuable concession in trade talks with the U.S., trading flexibility from Washington for more support in pressuring Pyongyang.

OPINION

If you ever wanted to know what the downside of government by millionaires and billionaires is, this is as good of an example as you can find.

OPINION

The problem Mattis encountered, in the end, was that the president really did think he understood military policy better than his generals, and foreign policy better than his diplomats.

OPINION

Setting aside the validity of Trump’s arguments, it’s worth asking why he keeps making them.

OPINION

Emboldened by the Trump administration’s denigration and threatened abandonment of traditional U.S. allies in Europe and other regions, China has launched a strategic campaign to woo, gain control over or otherwise undermine nations that have long supported U.S. goals and alliance management abroad.

OPINION

Amid the turmoil, Trump’s troop-withdrawal announcement had a clarifying effect.

OPINION

Syria was never America’s to win or lose, and getting out now is not a catastrophe.

OPINION

Any other U.S. president would have by now taken common-sense steps to deter Putin from further aggression, in conjunction with allies such as Germany, Britain and France.

OPINION

When the government can’t get it together, someone needs to keep things running. Around here, we’re doers: We don’t just sit on our hands.

OPINION

But all who worry that Trump is undoing much of what has made U.S. foreign policy effective in the past ought to be glad that Romney has chosen to pick this fight.

OPINION

But if Brexit takes place with no deal, Britain’s politicians won’t have the luxury to launch new projects away from Europe.

OPINION

Amid all this policy turmoil, the Kurds just keep on fighting ISIS.

OPINION

The anti-government sentiment underlying the president’s order to not increase the pay of federal employees unjustly vilifies them as a drain on the economy, while ignoring the important work they provide to their fellow citizens.

OPINION

Regulating speech is difficult even under the best of conditions, and the internet is far from the best of conditions.

OPINION

Understanding who believes fake news and why touches on the very foundations of American democracy.

OPINION

Admiration for the military is, in part, a vestige of the armed forces’ avoidance of partisan politics in recent decades. Military nonpartisanship, in turn, reflected the prevailing postwar centrist consensus, under which the Pentagon accumulated vast resources and influence.

OPINION

As 2019 begins, we are watching Trump because we know that he knows best of all whether he should be in full panic mode.

OPINION

Anti-missile deployments in Asia and Europe are prudent given threats from North Korea and elsewhere.

OPINION

As he makes decisions regarding the Middle East and South Asia, the president needs to take account of the regenerative capability of these groups if he is to fulfill his No. 1 responsibility: protecting the American people.

OPINION

While Mattis had admirable qualities as a military leader, that experience did not translate into meaningful accomplishments as defense secretary.

OPINION

Binary concepts of war and peace are inadequate to understanding the nature of U.S. military force projection abroad.

OPINION

Somehow it doesn’t come as a surprise that the allegations of sexual misconduct that finally brought down former cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, happened at Christmastime.

OPINION

Christmas is a time for giving and receiving, and it’s often a struggle to remember to be grateful in the face of disappointment. We humans are very good at that. We’re an envious species.

OPINION

As U.S. political parties diverge ever more distinctly into a defender of the old and the past versus an advocate of the young and the future, corporate America — at least the parts with consumer-facing business — is increasingly two-faced.

OPINION

We are not abandoning the fight — far from it. We are recommitting ourselves to what is best for America, our citizens and the most precious resource we have: our men and women in uniform.

OPINION

Mazloum said he advised his commanders that this agreement was made by U.S. politicians, not soldiers. “This is something immoral, leaving your ally in the battle alone,” he said, something American soldiers would never do by choice.

OPINION

It evokes the common sense, wisdom and competence that the American people have been starved for over the last two years.

Opinion

President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria is in compliance with U.S. and international law. The presence of U.S. troops in the Syrian civil war was never authorized by Congress. We are also violating international law by invading Syria without the approval of the United Nations.

Opinion

A president who prides himself on doing the opposite of whatever former President Barack Obama did, President Donald Trump has just repeated his predecessor's mistakes in the region – and the consequences this time around will be even worse.

OPINION

As 2018 comes to a close, attention is turning to what is likely to happen in 2019. I have no idea. But if you follow these questions, you will have your finger on the pulse of the world to come.

OPINION

Reagan’s basic idea is sound. The flow of illegal immigration should be considered at both ends: the desperation that drives people to leave their own countries, and the underground economy that exploits them in this one.

OPINION

Some veterans have used their homes as an ATM of sorts, cashing out equity every time home values increase. This practice, promoted by aggressive lenders, is bad for many of the veterans cashing out their equity, bad for other veterans, and it’s bad for VA home-loan program as a whole.

OPINION

In most rural communities, it’s not even a debate. Of course our schools should be protected by people carrying guns.

OPINION

Put aside the murky plans to orbit the moon in a can for no good reason.

OPINION

I don’t share Trump’s unvarnished opposition to the postwar global order, but I do think he often asks the right questions. Our allies need to do more. Our military needs to be used less and have its readiness restored.

OPINION

Opposing Trump might have cost Ryan the speakership, but it would also have created a legacy very different from the one he now leaves.

OPINION

Trump’s decision virtually ensures that security will disintegrate further, that ISIS and Iran will surge again, and that the United States will be compelled to come back into Syria at even greater military cost and in more adverse conditions than if we had stayed.

OPINION

With her, the Senate gets a fearless, scrappy, humble public servant.

OPINION

Russia’s internet activity wasn’t just about fomenting division. The IRA was also trying to develop assets who could be used in later covert operations.

OPINION

A number of readers suggested that we should lay down the burden of primacy. Do the years 1914, 1939 and 1950 jog your memory?

OPINION

Optimists who think that staying in would permit Britain to influence the EU’s policies ignore the repeated examples to the contrary.

OPINION

Of all the positions in the Cabinet, the secretary of the interior has the broadest responsibility to think holistically and act intergenerationally.

OPINION

The closest the Security Council came to action was sending a mission to meet Rohingya refugees in April.

OPINION

We may not be able to agree on the future of health care, but give us a family down the street with cancer in their midst, and we’ll figure out how to get meals to them during chemo.

OPINION

It’s a perfect moment to revisit the issues that fueled the populist revolt in the first place, and offer policies that actually help angry middle-class voters.

OPINION

We are losing the military edge that has underpinned our security and prosperity since 1945. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.

OPINION

The question for likely speaker Nancy Pelosi will be how she balances the wants of the progressive side of her caucus with the needs of the members from red and purple districts who actually gave Democrats the majority.

OPINION

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played up the despicable killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to his own considerable advantage.

OPINION

Unless we begin to demand answers for the detention and death of Americans around the world, I don’t see any incentive for Assad or other thugs to stop targeting our citizens.

OPINION

Ryan will leave Congress like the institution itself — making incremental progress one day and sliding backward the next.

OPINION

The Beltway is almost 100 percent convinced that Trump can’t win this showdown on border security. Just like they were convinced he would lose 25 months ago.

OPINION

Instead, we’d be far better off questioning our own accountability for the suffering of military personnel, which mandatory platitudes will never alleviate.

OPINION

Chinese Googlers are more likely to face pressure from their government than Googlers who come from more open societies.

OPINION

The fact that we can’t always sort out the complicated moral cases doesn’t relieve us of the obligation to act morally in straightforward cases that abound with clarity.

OPINION

The one thing that both parties have in common is voters’ skepticism.

OPINION

He has managed to worsen the State Department’s already abysmal standing with every significant constituency.

OPINION

People who should have known did not want to know because knowing would have forced them to answer questions about when in an infant’s gestation it is preposterous to deny that a baby is present.

OPINION

Journalists would be well-served to re-engage over the next two years on the mission they briefly pursued after the 2016 election, discovering and covering all of America — every day, every week, without bias or judgment.

OPINION

Support for more taxes on the rich is growing, and not just in France, which is one of the few developed economies to still have a wealth tax.

OPINION

George H.W. Bush’s lifetime of service was capped by one last selfless act, a final gift to the country he served so well. He knew exactly what he was doing by opting not to exclude Trump from his funeral.

OPINION

A hard border would be in no one’s interest. It would stifle the commerce that has so recently and flourished, and it could increase the possibility of a resumption of violence.

OPINION

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom on Wednesday released a trove of Facebook documents that provide an intriguing glimpse inside the company — and obliterate any remaining notions of its chief executive officer as an innocent babe in the woods.

OPINION

There isn’t a cure to the global warming of invective, just mitigation and adaptation.

OPINION

Wisconsin Republicans are not staging a physical coup. But there is more than one way to steal power. They are exploiting the democratic legislative process to attack democracy itself.

OPINION

In the recent midterms, our divided country has forcefully deprived both parties of the fantasy that they can govern without compromise. The question now is whether congressional leaders can develop a pragmatic agenda to lead a divided nation.

Special to Stars and Stripes

OPINION

Two of our past four presidents have been chummy with a registered sex offender. It makes you wonder: What is this country doing unto itself, and when will we stop doing it?

OPINION

There surely is a balance to be found lest the sexes further alienate and segregate.

OPINION

If gene editing becomes commonplace, our estrangement from our essential sociality will likely manifest in more and more troubling ways.

OPINION

China appears to be willing to accommodate the United States on specific trade issues as long as the United States accepts its right to flourish and grow.

OPINION

"On Jan. 20, 1993, I entered the Oval Office for the first time as president," Bill Clinton recalls. "As is the tradition, waiting for me was a note from my predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush."

OPINION

As a star of "Saturday Night Live" during the misunderstood presidency of George H.W. Bush, Dana Carvey had people across the country repeating, as a laugh line: "Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent."

OPINION

One thing never changed: his inherent decency and graciousness, whether dealing with fellow Republicans who undercut his efforts to curb the budget deficit or a press that sometimes treated him unfairly by calling this genuine World War II hero a “wimp” or taking advantage of his good manners to suggest he was out of touch with technological advance.

OPINION

President George H.W. Bush didn’t like to be asked political questions during lunch, I and the five other journalists who would be seated at his table were warned by the White House staffer in charge of protocol. He wanted to share an enjoyable meal.

OPINION

President George H.W. Bush always considered Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Fame baseball player for the New York Yankees, to be one of his greatest heroes. No doubt, this admiration stemmed in part from Bush's own baseball career. Like Gehrig, Bush played as a left-handed first baseman, for the Yale baseball team.

OPINION

He was from another time. A time when war heroes became president, when men wrote long, emotional letters and when Americans who didn't necessarily like the president didn't necessarily hate the president.

OPINION

That the two men can appear so politically similar despite such wildly different philosophical commitments suggests a Western polity that’s groping for a workable theory of government — and failing to find it.

OPINION

Let’s suppose an end to American support would force Saudi Arabia to stop fighting. Would this make the terms for peace better or worse for American interests? What incentive would Iran have at that point to leave Yemen?