Here we go again. Americans clamor for the exits, leaving behind innocent blood and sophisticated weapons for jubilant irregulars who humiliated them with antiquated guns and makeshift bombs. Next time, America risks bumbling into another unwinnable war with an adversary that can hit back hard - and closer to home. Read more»

Across the world, people who fear for their lives or can’t feed their families spend their last savings in desperate flight. America’s “border crisis” is a small part of an inexorable human tide. Because of conflict, despotic regimes and climate collapse, it is rising by the year. Read more»

I'm betting on the American people. But the odds are terrifying. Too many voters rely on emotional impulse, fixating on narrow issues without considering the big picture. Democrats continue to snipe at one another, fortifying Trump's chances. Read more»

Unfinished reports on faraway places litter my desk - ocean plunder, abandoned refugees, Cape Town running dry - but I'm fixated on those pools of blood, indelible in memory, at the Safeway just up the road. For sheer human folly and hypocrisy these days, America is first. Read more»

A tongue-tied TV analyst was talking about salaries some time ago, and she referred to “a rise in the minimum rage.” That would have been a perfect Freudian slip for an America ready to storm its Bastilles. If only. ardly outraged, we hand over our keys to self-serving politicians and grasping tycoons who betray our basic values. Police gun down kids with impunity. If we don’t wield pitchforks now, our democracy may soon become serfdom. Read more»

We can counter what is still a limited global threat by understanding it and reacting sensibly. Our first priority is boxing off our own cowards and crazies who are ready to abandon fundamental values for the illusion of security. Read more»

However New York courts deal with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to the French he is toast. The suave global economist favored to unseat Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 has shamed a society that is not easy to shock. Read more»

Recent events bring to light the ability, and need, for countries to work together for a stable global atmosphere. Read more»

Roses and satin hearts on a sea of candles evoke the Diana vigil in Hyde Park. Cameras linger on tearful faces, and correspondents ask, "How does it feel?" in a dozen accents. This might be Gaza or Grozny. Read more»

When Gabrielle Giffords first ran for Congress in 2006, I asked her priorities. She named two: sensible gun control and public health care for the mentally fragile. The ironies only start there. Read more» 1

“The Restored New Testament” seeks to restore the original message after centuries of distortion that feeds hatred among religions with a shared heritage. Read more»

It is no trick for a Europe-based reporter to define Tea Party foreign policy, after prowling both coasts and parts in between. There is none. The worldview of the conservative grassroots movement evokes that tea party Alice found down a rabbit hole. Read more» 1

Opinion: Where, the New York Times asks, have you seen impact of the spill? Here in deepest Provence, for starters. But expect it anywhere you look. Read more»

It is eerie and ugly, coming home to a state of the union that now incites cops to roust fourth-generation Americans on the simple evidence of a suntan. That smacks of what evil empires do. Arizona is not yet Azerbaijan but neither is it, any longer, the big-hearted Mexican-accented place I loved to say I was from. Read more»

You know we’re in trouble when a New York Times headline says, “Obama Team Split on Tactics Against Terror,” and you think that means the health care aftermath. Read more» 2