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A bigger NATO has been a better NATO

May 26, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

THIS SEASON marks the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest feats of statesmanship since the end of the Cold War: the opening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It was in the spring of 1999 that Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic became the first of the nations from behind the Iron Curtain to join the Atlantic alliance. Seven more nations joined in 2004, and another three since then.

NATO today comprises 29 countries in Europe and North America. Much has gone wrong in the world over the past two decades. The enlargement of NATO is one hugely important thing that went right.

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Nancy Pelosi, profile in courage? Hardly

May 22, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

I WONDER SOMETIMES whether officials at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, which presents the annual Profile in Courage Award, have ever read Profiles in Courage. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1956 book, then-Senator John Kennedy described eight US senators who upheld an unpopular political position with fortitude, even though it meant defying their party or allies and jeopardizing their careers.

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Presidents always leave when their time is up

May 8, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

ANOTHER NEWS CYCLE, another round of anti-Trump hyperventilation, this time over the prospect that the 45th president of the United States won't leave the White House when it's time to make way for the 46th.

Not surprisingly, the nonsense began on Twitter.

Trump sycophant Jerry Falwell Jr. tweeted over the weekend that the president's term should be extended by two years to compensate for the Russia investigation — "payback for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup," in Falwell's words. Trump retweeted the jeer, following it with his own complaint that "they have stolen two years" from his presidency "that we will never be able to get back."

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'Unplanned' tells an essential truth about abortion: It is violent

May 5, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

IN A JANUARY profile of Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood's new president, BuzzFeed News reported that she intended to start shifting the organization's focus away from abortions. Wen repudiated the story at once, saying BuzzFeed had "completely misconstrue[d]" Planned Parenthood's intentions. "Our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care," she tweeted. "We will never back down from that fight."

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When terrorists killed his daughter, his long crusade for justice began

April 28, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

I LEARNED OF Sunday's horrific suicide bombings in Sri Lanka just as I was finishing a new book about an earlier instance of terror.

On the morning of April 9, 1995, a Palestinian suicide terrorist blew up an Israeli bus filled with passengers traveling to Kfar Darom, a town near the Mediterranean shore in the Gaza Strip. Eight people were killed, including Alisa Flatow, a Brandeis University student from New Jersey who was spending a semester abroad. A shard of shrapnel punctured her head, fatally lacerating her brain.

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