Visual source: Newseum
Mike Littwin:
This would be the perfect time for Newt Gingrich to run for president if he weren't, well, you know, Newt Gingrich. …
What would make Gingrich an intriguing possibility now — if he weren't so much Newt Gingrich — is that, in many ways, he's just what so many Republicans insist they want.
Donald Rumsfeld says Wikileaks disclosures have harmed U.S. security but also "inadvertently" have vindicated the Bush administration's anti-terror policies. Riiiiiiiight, Don. Just like your memoirs overflow with truth.
Tom Hayden says defeating the ideology of the Long War requires a Long Peace Movement.
Eugene Robinson:
The threat of terrorism is still with us, but the man who embodied that threat is gone. We can think more clearly now — about our mission in Afghanistan and our relationship with Pakistan, about the trade-offs between liberty and security, about which of our fears are rational and which are not.
The change in our mindset that I’m certain is coming will not happen overnight. It will take us a while to get used to our new psychological freedom.
Scott Horton:
Obama’s statement that release of the photos might be viewed as “trophies” focuses concerns properly. From ancient times, rules against the humiliating or degrading treatment of the body of a fallen adversary have belonged to the core of the warrior code. This reflects the values of those who fight as well as the concern that mistreatment would inspire acts of retaliation, propelling warfare into steadily more brutal and inhumane spirals. Obama’s decision to withhold the photographs of bin Laden’s corpse on these grounds is not required by the laws of war, but it is reasonable.
This debate should not be a question of yes or no, but rather when and how. It is simply incorrect to say that the only interest in release of the photographs and film of the bin Laden raid is lurid. In a democracy we should work from a presumption that records should be faithfully preserved and that the people should at some point have a right to see them. There may be reasonable safety or security concerns, but it is unlikely that those concerns would run longer than a generation.
Simon Sarmiento says Uganda's anti-gay bill is far from dead.
Lindsay Beyerstein comments on recent "Slut Walks":
“Slut” is just another way of saying “worthless” without having to come up with a reason. Little girls get called sluts before they even know what sex is. …
Even virginity is not a defense against alleged sluttiness. Virgins can be sluts if they dress the wrong way, walk the wrong way, or even instill the wrong thoughts in other people. Some people will convict you of sluttitude because your body is the wrong shape, or the right shape.
Paul Krugman:
This has to be one of the funniest political stories of recent weeks: On Tuesday, 42 freshmen Republican members of Congress sent a letter urging President Obama to stop Democrats from engaging in “Mediscare” tactics — that is, to stop saying that the Republican budget plan released early last month, which would end Medicare as we know it, is a plan to end Medicare as we know it.
Hirokazu Yoshikawa says it is in everyone's interest to ensure that the children of undocumented immigrants get skills and motivation they need to do well in our society:
Living under the radar creates enormous stress and necessitates terrible choices for these families. Many choose to keep their citizen children from taking advantage of programs and opportunities that would improve their development because parents fear that putting in applications could increase their risk of being deported and their families' risk of being ripped apart. This means that the children of undocumented immigrants are less likely to receive the kind of high-quality, center-based child care that research has shown to improve early development. The results are lower cognitive and language skills that can be seen as early as 24 months.
Mona Charen cites "one of America's most thoughtful philosophers of government—Calvin Coolidge"—in her take on why "Americanism matters."
