Opinion: In today’s pages: The common defense and the big traffic fix
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The editorial board examines ‘The common defense’ in its American Values series:
The challenge for the presidential candidates is to explain how they plan to defend the United States, particularly how they would combat international terrorist networks and how they would restore American prestige and leadership in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Most are struggling to do so while trying mightily to avoid awkward truths. It’s not politic to admit that the U.S. is weaker than it was a decade ago. And there is no campaign advantage to acknowledging that our current troubles cannot be blamed solely on either the very real failures of President Bush (as the Democrats would prefer to do) or on the very real dangers posed by Islamist terrorists, nuclear proliferators or oil-flush anti-American strongmen (the preferred targets of Republicans).We believe that the restoration of American leadership amid rising global anti-Americanism requires an explicit repudiation of the exceptionalism that has soured this administration’s dealings with other nations, and so hindered the collective defense of the world’s democracies.
The board also reacts to a report on how to safeguard the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Op-Ed series ‘The Big Fix’ continues, asking local experts how to solve L.A.’s most pressing problems in 2008. Today’s question: how should we get from here to there?
Readers react to the death of leukemia patient Nataline Sarkisyan. Calabasas’ David Hurwitz says, ‘Nataline’s chances of long-term survival went from slim to zero as soon as Cigna meddled in her medical care.’