Eugene Robinson's Blog, page 101

Obama’s hesitancy on Iraq

Don’t feel bad if you’re confused about what the United States is trying to accomplish in Iraq. President Obama doesn’t seem to know, either — or else he won’t say.Days after admitting that “we don’t yet have a complete strategy” for training Iraqi government forces — which are supposed to ultimately defeat the Islamic State — Obama is sending an additional 450 troops to execute this unstrategized mission. That will raise the number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq to about 3,500. But what, realistically, is their goal? And how are they supposed to achieve it?Read full article >>

Republicans might as well pound sand

After months of trying to weaken Hillary Clinton by pounding her with everything they’ve got, the amount of progress Republicans have made is pretty close to zero.The GOP seems to have forgotten the central fact about the Clintons: That which does not kill them makes them stronger.Read full article >>

FIFA gets a red card

We’re used to seeing soccer players fling themselves to the ground, writhe in feigned agony and complain bitterly about the injustice of it all. Now the international overlords of the game are beginning to do the same.Read full article >>

Hanging up on the NSA

Imade a phone call at 12:01 a.m. Monday, and it felt good. For the first time in years, the number I dialed on my iPhone was not captured and stored in a massive government database.Since it was an inconvenient hour, I called my office phone, knowing it would go to voicemail. But I wanted to make the point that an important principle was again being honored: Unless I’m suspected of some involvement with terrorism, it’s none of the National Security Agency’s business whom I talk to. Or when. Or why.Read full article >>

The GOP’s fuzzy Mideast plan

Critics of the way President Obama is dealing with the Islamic State should be required to specify what alternative steps they would take — and how their strategies would make a difference.Republican presidential candidates are unanimous in charging that Obama’s handling of Iraq and Syria has been all wrong. But when pressed to lay out a specific plan of action and explain why they believe it would work better than what Obama is doing now, they tend to mumble and look for ways to change the subject.Read full article >>

End the NSA’s collection of phone data

Once in a great while, House Republicans get it right. So let me praise them for leading a bipartisan effort to curtail the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of data on the phone calls of innocent Americans.Read full article >>

Why fight for the Iraqis if they are not going to fight for themselves?

If Iraqis won’t fight for their nation’s survival, why on earth should we?This is the question posed by the fall of Ramadi, which revealed the emptiness at the core of U.S. policy. President Obama’s critics are missing the point: Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many troops he sends back to Iraq or whether their footwear happens to touch the ground. The simple truth is that if Iraqis will not join together to fight for a united and peaceful country, there will be continuing conflict and chaos that potentially threaten American interests.Read full article >>

Obama drills a hole in his climate policy

Here are two facts that cannot be reconciled: The planet has experienced the warmest January-through-April on record, and the Obama administration has authorized massive new oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.Read full article >>

A gift basket for Clinton from the GOP

At this point in the campaign, do you see the Republican presidential hopeful who’s going to beat Hillary Clinton? I didn’t think so.Not if what we’re watching now is the best the GOP can do. Maybe a thoroughbred will emerge from the coming debates, assuming the party finds a way to cram all the candidates onto the same stage. So far, however, most of the GOP field seems to be in a contest to make the likely Democratic nominee look better. Jeb Bush has been the biggest disappointment. It’s one thing to be rusty after spending a few years away from politics — indeed, Clinton’s handling of her e-mail controversy was less than balletic. But Bush shows no sign of having given more than a passing thought to the central challenge he faces in reaching the White House: the fact that his brother got there first and made a mess of things.Read full article >>

It’s time to seriously rethink ‘zero tolerance’ policing

The first two steps toward uplifting young black men are simple: Stop killing them and stop locking them in prison for nonviolent offenses.Subsequent steps are harder, but no real progress can be made until the basic right to life and liberty is secured. If anything positive is to come of Freddie Gray’s death and the Baltimore rioting that ensued, let it be a new and clear-eyed focus on these fundamental issues of daily life for millions of Americans.Read full article >>