Asia & the Pacific

3 Items

trump bannon flynn oval office

AP

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Policy

Trump Has Already Blown It

| Feb. 03, 2017

What these modern-day Jacobins don’t realize, alas, is that destroying institutions is easier than building them. If their assault on our core political traditions and institutions is successful, the United States will at best end up weaker and poorer. At worst, it will cease to be a meaningful democracy. The fact that the generally conservative Economist Intelligence Unit recently downgraded America — that’s right, the "Land of the Free" — from a "full" to a "flawed" democracy tells you just how serious this problem is. Based on the early evidence, Trump and Bannon want to accelerate that trend.

M1A1 Abrams under the "Hands of Victory" in Ceremony Square, Baghdad, Iraq.

Creative Commons

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Wisdom Amid Chicanery in U.S. Views of Its Mideast Wars

| February 6, 2014

"The USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll published a few days ago showed that a 52%-37% majority of Americans felt the United States had mostly failed to achieve its goals in Iraq, which is a reversal of the 56%-33% majority that had said in November 2011, as the U.S. was leaving that smashed country, that the U.S. had mostly succeeded in Iraq. A nearly identical 52%-37% majority of Americans felt that the U.S. had mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan, where the Taliban today are resurgent and the Afghan government is rather shaky. The American public in 2003 had thought by a 3-1 ratio that the Afghanistan war was the right decision, but today, by 52%-38%, Americans say it was the wrong decision."

Melinda Gates is helping to change the face of global health by giving millions the chance for a better life.

STEPHEN BRASHEAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Analysis & Opinions - The Boston Globe

Peacemakers, 2013

| December 19, 2013

In his annual "Peacemakers" column, Nicholas Burns highlights a few remarkable men and women who work tirelessly to bring peace and healing in an increasingly turbulent world. He reminds us of President Kennedy's vision: that despite the violence and tragedy around us, we must hold fast to the urgent, elusive, human dream: "Not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time."