Opinion: In today’s pages: Progress on health care and an apology to Mexico
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Health reform took a major step forward, the editorial board notes, when insurers indicated they were open to ending some of the practices that have kept so many people from being able to obtain insurance -- basing premiums on health history and refusing to cover pre-existing conditions -- as long as everyone is required to purchase insurance.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earns the board’s praise for acknowledging that the U.S. market for illegal drugs contributes to the drug violence that has seized Mexico. And the board warns that an attempt by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to give new protections to large swaths of the Mojave Desert could backfire for the environment -- and the desert itself -- if it keeps significant solar projects from being built.
On the other side of the fold, Sarah Chayes, who heads the Arghand Cooperative in Afghanistan, writes that the United States’ scaled-back commitments to that country have not only disappointed the population there, but caused many to turn back toward the Taliban.
So when Obama said recently that there were no plans on tap to ‘rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy,’ or when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the aim wasn’t to create ‘some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there,’ my colleagues were listening. Such formulations have the effect on Afghans of a cold shower. And without the energy and commitment of the Afghan population, even the narrowest of U.S. goals in Afghanistan -- denying sanctuary to international terrorists -- will not be achieved.
Joel Stein argues against tax deductions for charitable donations. And in the Letters to the Editor, readers weigh in on whether President Obama is wrecking a promising start as the nation’s leader.