WASHINGTON — Show of hands: Does anybody really understand the U.S. policy in Afghanistan? Can anyone figure out how we’re supposed to stay the course and bring home the troops at the same time? I’m at a loss, even after President Obama’s surprise trip to the war zone. The president’s televised address from Bagram air base raised more questions than it answered. Let’s...

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Even liberal Arianna Huffington objected to a recent Obama campaign ad suggesting that Mitt Romney might not have issued the order to send in the Navy SEALs to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. She called the ad “despicable.” Standing with 9/11 mayor Rudy Giuliani by his side at a New York firehouse that lost 11 men on Sept. 11, Mitt Romney, who has attacked Obama for allegedly politicizing the OBL...

So soon after eight years of W circumlocution (“Mistakes were made”), could Americans bear as president another aging frat boy who instinctively mangles language into meaninglessness? Mitt Romney provides a preview of his brand of highwire linguistics by torturing a five-year- old declaration by Obama that he would unilaterally pursue Osama bin Laden into Pakistan: “I thought it was a mistake...

Based on this column from China’s state mouthpiece, the Global Times, Beijing seems oblivious to how heroes are made. Why is it that Chen Guangcheng, who began as a local activist battling forced abortion and sterilization, has become a worldwide concern? Whether Beijing is willfully ignoring the obvious, or just seeking to discredit a brave man standing up for his principles, this article by columnist Shan...

WASHINGTON — We expect some hypocrisy in politics, but it was still jaw-dropping to behold Republicans accusing President Obama of politicizing the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Wasn’t it just eight years ago that the GOP organized an entire presidential campaign — including the choreography of its 2004 national convention — around the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and George...

President Barack Obama’s lightning trip to Afghanistan to address the nation about ending a war that has lasted longer than Veitnam, sign a long-term partnership pact with the Afghanistan government, and mark the the anniversary of Al Qaeda terrorism chief Osama bin Laden’s death with American troops could re-ignite Afghanistan as an issue on several fronts. The trip and news that the U.S. will...

Osama bin Laden was so depressed about Al Qaida’s low favorability ratings in the Arab world, we now learn, that he considered a name change for the franchise and a new career. No word as to whether he was mulling a Donald Trump invitation to host “The Apprentice: Boardroom Terrorism” or to be the subject of a Comedy Central Roast, which would have certified him as a has-been. Death, a panel...

Was the escape of China’s blind dissident Chen Guangcheng from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy the failed attempt by a discredited man to enlist the help of a foreign power? This editorial from China’s government mouthpiece, the Global Times, not only seeks to diminish Mr. Chen’s significance as a global human rights champion, but hopes to persuade readers that seeking any kind of help or security...

It is now “wheels-up” at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, for Air Force One taking the President of the United States home after a secretive, whirlwind trip to the war front to salute the troops, sign an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on post-war expectations and make an address the nation on the future of that long war. For those who were not able to watch President Obama’s address to the...

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Given the two candidates for the U.S. presidency, what do Europeans and in this case, Germans, have to look forward to? According to Die Welt columnist Alan Posener, “The good news for Europeans is also the bad news: it won’t make much of a difference who wins.” To put it another way, American leadership as Europeans have come to expect it is over – and weary-sounding Germans will have...

UPDATE II: “The surprise trip was a closely guarded secret, kept by White House officials and members of the White House press corps — as is customary with presidential trips to war zones.” — for the security of the President (added by author) Read here how the rumors and news were handled by the media and the White House. UPDATE I: The New York Times now reports: On Surprise Visit to Kabul, Obama...

In what could be the cruelest of ironies, May 1 marks both the ninth anniversary of a mission not accomplished and the first anniversary of one accomplished and accomplished magnificently. The media is doing quite a good job of reporting on the latter — the killing of Osama Bin Laden — although it is being distorted, “sour-graped” and even discredited in some quarters. Our own Taylor Marsh gives...

Rupert Murdoch is filthy rich and has amassed enormous political power in Britain, the U.S. and Australia that would have made even Citizen Kane blush, but he has never attained and now never will attain the one thing he has most wanted — respect. In an extraordinarily damning report released today, a select Parliamentary committee concludes that Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run his huge...

Do Mexican citizens need to prepare themselves for a preventive war from across their Northern border? For Mexico’s La Jornada, former Mexican general and governor Jorge Carrillo Olea warns that given Mexico’s continuing weakness and the danger criminal gangs and general disorder pose to the the United States, the U.S. notion of ‘Manifest Destiny’, which is responsible for the loss...

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UPDATE: Related in more ways than one to the “brain drain,” especially as it affects our young people, is a “brain waste.” Paul Krugman addresses how some of our policies are contributing to “wasting the minds of a whole generation.” Please read it here == Original Post: The unemployment in Spain “just hit a depression-level 24.4 percent.” Portugal, and Greece are not faring much better. Meanwhile...

The final week of electioneering for the 6 May Presidential vote between incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy and Social Francois Hollande is turning into a foul-mouthed brawl between right and left in France. Both sides are running populist campaigns instead of providing solutions to the country’s very troubled economy worsened by mounting job losses, recession and stagnation in Europe. Sarkozy has accused Hollande...

Have austerity moves in Spain made that great country’s crisis worse?