Archive for the Eugene Robinson Category
History Lessons in the Afghan Hills
It’s hard to read Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the Afghanistan war without hearing one of those horror-movie voices that seem to come from everywhere and nowhere, a voice that grows louder and more insistent with every page: “Get out. Get out. Get out.”
History Lessons in the Afghan Hills
It’s hard to read Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the Afghanistan war without hearing one of those horror-movie voices that seem to come from everywhere and nowhere, a voice that grows louder and more insistent with every page: “Get out. Get out. Get out.”
Some Obama Foes Are Indeed Racists
What I wrote last year about candidate Barack Obama — that to win he had to be seen as “the least-aggrieved black man in America” — may be even more relevant now. To lead this diverse and fractious nation effectively, the president has to negotiate racial issues with delicacy, caution and tact. He has to [...]
The Wall Street Casino, Back in Business
It’s been a year since the financial system collapsed like a botched souffle, and the sense of acute crisis has eased. The wizards of Wall Street are raring to get back to business as usual — and if we let them, we’ll have only ourselves to blame when the next meltdown comes.
GOP Performance at Obama Speech Was Un-American
Anyone who watched Wednesday night as President Obama explained his health-care reform proposals to Congress saw a chief executive making what sounded like a genuine appeal for bipartisanship — and his opponents behaving like a bunch of spoiled first-graders. Obama should ignore them, even if they hold their breath until they turn blue.
Health-Care Reform’s Lost Middle Ground
The rule among politicians in Washington used to be that when the provincials become restless, as they are now, the safest thing to do is run to the center. But as this sour and unsettled summer ends, the political center looks like the white line running down the middle of a busy street — a [...]
Medical Professionals Owe Torture Accounting
For the Bush administration, torture was a delicate business. The aim was to injure but not incapacitate — to inflict precisely enough pain and terror to break a subject’s will, but no more. To calibrate the proper degree of abuse, the torturer needed an accurate sense of how much agony the subject’s mind and body [...]
The Consequences of Good Ideas
Los Angeles seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a good idea, actually — the setting is spectacular and the weather is perfect. No wonder millions of people decide to live there, and it’s only logical that some of them would build their homes in the canyon-creased hills that look out across [...]
Ted Kennedy: an Eternal Prince Who Found His Cause
That the nation is so moved by the passing of Edward Moore Kennedy testifies to his skill, grace and determination at playing a role that must have been infinitely more difficult than it sounds: a prince fated never to be king.
Ted Kennedy: an Eternal Prince Who Found His Cause
That the nation is so moved by the passing of Edward Moore Kennedy testifies to his skill, grace and determination at playing a role that must have been infinitely more difficult than it sounds: a prince fated never to be king.