Editorial Roundup

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

Sept. 22

Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, on ACORN:

ACORN has a lot of work to do if it wants to restore its image, regain credibility and continue receiving public funding in the wake of the latest public scandal that has tarnished the liberal-leaning advocacy group.

ACORN short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has received $54 million in federal funds since 1994. But the funding is in jeopardy after a highly publicized and damaging video surfaced.

Hidden cameras captured ACORN workers assisting a pair of conservative filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute on how to obtain fraudulent loans to operate a brothel, evade taxes and smuggle underage illegal immigrants from El Salvador to engage in prostitution.

The group's leaders initially claimed the videos were doctored, and accused right-wing critics of a smear. But last week its CEO acknowledged "the indefensible action of a handful of our employees" and announced an independent investigation.

That was the sensible thing to do, and ACORN shouldn't qualify for more public money until it cleans up its act. Congress also should hold a full-scale investigation to determine if ACORN still deserves federal funding. ...

If the advocacy group wants to regain public trust and quell public criticism, it must get back to its roots of helping people in need instead of hurting itself and its public image to the benefit of those who would prefer that ACORN falls to the ground and rots away.

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On the Net:

http://www.pnj.com/article/20090922/OPINION/909220301/1020

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Sept. 18

The New York Times, on President Obama and the missile defense system:

President Obama made a sound strategic decision, scrapping former President George W. Bushs technologically dubious plan to build a long-range missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Instead, the Pentagon will deploy a less-ambitious but more feasible system of interceptors and sensors, first on ships and later on land.
Mr. Bushs plan was flawed in three fundamental ways. The technology was nowhere near ready. The threat it was supposed to defend against an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile was also years away. And the plan (and Mr. Bushs ham-fisted insistence on it) gave Moscow a far-too-convenient excuse to rail against the Wests encroachment and shirk its responsibility to help contain Irans nuclear ambitions.

The new system addresses the first two problems. The technology exists and can be deployed much sooner than the Bush system. And it is intended to counter a more immediate danger: Irans short- and medium-range missiles that could threaten Europe or Israel.
Still, managing the diplomacy particularly the disappointment of the Central Europeans and the politics in this country will require a very deft hand. ...

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On the Net:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/opinion/18fri1.html?refopinion

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Sept. 22

Los Angeles Times, on interrogation techniques and the request of seven former CIA directors:

It wasn't their intention, but seven former CIA directors who asked President Obama to abort a Justice Department inquiry into "enhanced interrogation techniques" have moved Obama to renew his promise that he will do no such thing.

Last month, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. asked a career federal prosecutor, John H. Durham, to conduct a "preliminary review" into whether laws were violated in overseas interrogations of suspected terrorists. Holder made it clear that interrogators who complied with Justice Department guidelines, inadequate as they were, had nothing to fear.

That didn't prevent the former directors from sending Obama a letter asking him to "exercise your authority to reverse" Holder's decision. They argued that the inquiry was unfair to CIA employees who thought the Bush administration's decision not to prosecute was final and now lived in an "atmosphere of continual jeopardy"; that the inquiry will threaten cooperation from foreign intelligence services; and that "there is no reason to expect that the reopened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused." None of these arguments is persuasive. ...

It's not surprising that former CIA directors would speak up for the agency's employees, but they should have paid more attention to the ethical niceties of the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department. In requesting that Obama overrule the attorney general for the sake of CIA morale, they also were asking the president to abandon his assurances that Holder, an Obama campaign advisor, would put the law above loyalty to the White House.

We remain skeptical that the indefensible interrogation methods countenanced by the Bush administration will give rise to criminal prosecutions, let alone convictions. ... Even so, Holder's decision shouldn't be second-guessed by the president, especially because of outside pressure.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/ne7bfp

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Sept. 21

The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, on a soda tax:

If government can levy taxes on tobacco products to generate not only revenue but confer public health benefits with respect to smoking rates, why not apply the same principle to taxing sugary soft drinks to raise funds for health-care reform while fighting obesity? Obviously, the beverage industry has plenty of reasons to oppose the proposal, but strong advocates in the medical community make the idea one worth considering.

A team of prominent doctors, scientists, and policy makers who researched the subject are convinced that a tax on any soft drink with any added caloric sweetener that helps drive the obesity epidemic could cut consumption.

In a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the group proposed an excise tax of 1 percent per ounce for sugary beverages.

They said studies have shown that taxes can lower consumption of soda and other sweet drinks — sugar-free diet drinks are not included — enough to lead to a small weight loss and reduced health risks among many Americans. ...

Certainly, potential health benefits should be motivation enough to weigh in on the issue of taxing soft drinks to fight obesity.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/ml9mrq

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Sept. 21

The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., on college aid programs:

Recent developments at public colleges and universities leave little doubt that there is a need for the major overhaul of college aid programs approved by the U.S. House of Representatives . ...

So it was gratifying to find a bit of good news among all of higher education's low notes when the House passed the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their inception in the 1960s.

The bill removes private lenders from the student loan business, which will save an estimated $47 billion to $87 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It boosts Pell Grants and creates additional grant programs to improve community colleges and college graduation rates.

The measure faces a less certain future in the Senate, but its primary compromise — a shift away from President Barack Obama's call for making Pell Grants an entitlement program much like Social Security and Medicare — should help quell some of the concern over its impact on federal spending.

Americans could do a lot worse than to get behind a shift in national priorities that places a higher value on higher education. The United States can't perform on the global economic stage unless it competes with the rest of the world in its commitment to learning.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/kt2wpj

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Sept. 17

Courier-Post, Cherry Hill, N.J., on people cited repeatedly for driving while intoxicated:

Judges must send drunken drivers who do not change their ways to prison for long terms.

No matter how many times they're arrested; no matter how many times their licenses are suspended or they are forced into substance abuse programs, some people will just never stop drinking and driving.

With these people, the only thing to do is to put them in prison for a long time, long enough to make sure they never put the rest of us at risk again.

This month, a man died and his wife and daughter were seriously injured because a habitual drunken driver got behind the wheel again. ...

Judges in the United States need to start handing down the kinds of prison sentences — 10 years, 20 years, even life — that fit for people who clearly won't change their ways and stop drinking and driving. They need to be punished for flouting the law, but more so, the rest of us need to be protected. License suspensions, short stays in jail, rehab programs and community service just aren't cutting it for some of these offenders.

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On the Net:

http://www.courierpostonline.com/

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Sept. 20

Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, on a reforestation initiative:

Only God can make a tree.

But 2,000 workers, earning $18.75 an hour, could make a forest from the barren wastelands left by the coal industry in Central Appalachia.

This vision of reforesting a region and replenishing watersheds, while reviving local economies and creating sources of renewable energy, is not pie in the sky.

It's a near "shovel ready" plan developed by scientists at the University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech and by government reclamation experts who have mud on their boots from 30 years of inspecting strip mines.

All that stands between their vision and reality: $422 million.

This is a worthy mission that deserves support from Congress, the Obama administration, state governments and the coal industry.

The Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative is also a perfect fit for President Barack Obama's vision of retooling the economy by developing renewable energy to achieve energy independence and reverse global warming.

In the process, green jobs would be created in a region that desperately needs any kind of jobs. ...

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On the Net:

http://www.kentucky.com/591/story/943134.html

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Sept. 22

Chicago Tribune, on the war in Afghanistan:

Gen. Stanley McChrystal recently delivered a 66-page report filled with blunt warnings and a fresh strategy to win the war in Afghanistan. That report, disclosed by The Washington Post, is a bracing read: The insurgent threat — and violence in the country — is growing. Afghan forces are weak and outnumbered. More resources — including more American troops — must be sent, or NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could lose the war. ...

President Barack Obama seems to be trying to buy time for this decision on a big hike in troop levels. But he doesn't have a lot of time. Large numbers of troops can't be deployed overnight. And McChrystal says the next 12 months are crucial.

His report is sure to provoke a vigorous debate, with some Americans eager to scramble more soldiers, and others insistent that enough is enough.

Whatever Obama's decision, the stakes are immense. Afghanistan isn't some far-off spat with few implications for the U.S. and other societies. This page — like this president — has argued that letting Afghanistan revert to a breeding ground for global terrorists only risks more attacks like those of Sept. 11, 2001. By McChrystal's strategy or by some other means that Obama chooses, the U.S. and NATO badly need to win this war. That is not just a military challenge, but a human one as well. ...

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On the Net:

http://www.chicagotribune.com.

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Sept. 23

Dagsavisen, Oslo, Norway, on climate change:

Many of the nations that hope to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have set their sights on the nice, round number 2050, a year just far enough in the future to seem distant. What will the world look like then?

The richest countries seem to believe that they can buy their way out of climate change. You can argue until you're blue in the face that we have to reduce emissions first where it's least expensive. But the question is: least expensive for whom? Why should developing countries renounce growth and welfare so that their industrialized counterparts can maintain their own? ...

In 2050, the global distribution of power will likely have shifted significantly: away from Europe and the US and toward countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China. There will be new permanent members of the UN Security Council, which will force the old reliable powers, like the UK and France, to relinquish their votes to the EU.

And then there's water, which is at least as pressing a problem as climate change. There's a fixed amount of potable water. When one group gets more, another gets less. This is a geopolitical problem that might become far more difficult to deal with than financial crises and climate negotiations. ...

Still, it's possible that things won't turn out this way. The odds of which will increase greatly if the industrialized world starts to focus on what it can do at home to slow climate change. Ultimately, that would prove much less expensive than the current course.

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On the Net:

http://www.dagsavisen.no

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Sept. 23

Diena, Riga, Latvia, on the NATO commander's request for more troops in Afghanistan:

... (T)he secret report of the top U.S. and NATO commander, in which he admits the possibility of the joint mission's failure, reignited the debate on the desired strategy in this country. ...

The secret document's appearance in the media in and of itself attests to the top military commander's conviction of the need for additional forces and his wish to urge the White House to make the decision. A general's job is to tell politicians how to win the war, and the options for doing so, yet leaking this to the press can be interpreted as a lack of trust in politicians to make the right decisions. U.S. President Barack Obama must make a decision based on both the political situation in Afghanistan and the growing weariness of the war in the both the U.S. and the coalition states.

If "victory" is not defined as establishing a model democracy in Afghanistan, then there's a chance of achieving it. ... If a sharp increase in troop numbers in Iraq stabilized the situation and helped Iraqis establish control over themselves, the same can be done in Afghanistan since any additional forces would be used not in operations against insurgents but for civil defense against insurgents' attacks and preparing Afghan police and military to carry out this task.

However, U.S. commander Stanley McChrystal's report points to the Afghans' growing lack of trust toward U.S. forces and their own government, which is accused of being corrupt and falsifying the results of the presidential election. This means that time for strengthening the new government is finite. Thus a sharp increase of coalition forces could help attain a satisfactory result for a majority of Afghans faster and return confidence in their ability to control their own country.

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On the Net:

http://www.diena.lv

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Sept. 18

Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon, on President Obama and the missile defense system:

US President Barack Obamas decision to shelve plans to base a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe is a welcome sign of his departure from the war-mongering policies of his predecessor. The decision has already prompted sharp criticism from Obamas Republican rivals, who claim that the new US president is compromising Americas national security. But the truth is that Obamas move will probably go a long way toward making the United States and the world safer.
Supporters of George W. Bushs costly defense plan argued that it was necessary in order to ward off threats from Iran. But even after tens of billions of dollars were spent developing the advanced missile-interceptor system, the Pentagon could offer no guarantees that it would actually work in realistic conditions.
Obama said ... his administration had reassessed the threat of Irans missiles and had concluded that it could be countered with cheaper defense weapons that have a proven track record of working. The Obama administrations conclusion is an important one because it touches on an issue of major concern: the tendency of world leaders to exaggerate threats. ...
The move also lays the groundwork for greater multilateral cooperation on security issues, including here in the Middle East. And its cooperation, not confrontation, that will make us all safer.
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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/nf6ccr

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Sept. 23

The Independent, London, on migrants:

First the riot police went in, then the bulldozers. By the time their work was done, the makeshift migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais had been wiped away. Politicians on both sides of the Channel expressed their conviction yesterday that this will help solve the migrant problem that has plagued the French port for almost a decade. If only it were that simple. ...

First, politicians should look to where the migrants in this area originate. Most are from troubled states such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. If governments want to get to the root causes of the migration problem, rather than simply treating the symptoms, they should be making greater efforts to stabilize those nations and reduce the incentives for their populations to seek a better life elsewhere. Second, our leaders need to dispense with the fantasy that it is within their power to control migration flows. Some people from poor countries will always want to escape poverty or persecution, and they will endure extraordinary risks and hardship to do so. Furthermore, modern transportation and the open borders of Europe make it impossible to shut them out entirely. The objective should be to deal with the implications of the inevitable flow of people in the fairest and most humane way possible.

... Europe urgently needs to face up to the challenge of migration and work together to manage its consequences. Demolishing squatter camps and turning back boats of desperate people are not policies, but displacement activities and morally bankrupt at that.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/n3vbfc

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