Here are today's must read opinion and editorial columns.
GREECE CAN BE SAVED -- HERE'S HOW TO DO IT BY JEFFREY SACHSFINANCIAL TIMESIt’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly. Republicans believe, in short, that they’ve got Mr. Obama’s number, that he may still live in the White House but that for practical purposes his presidency is already over. It’s time — indeed, long past time — for him to prove them wrong.
TO THE LIMIT BY PAUL KRUGMANNEW YORK TIMESIt’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly. Republicans believe, in short, that they’ve got Mr. Obama’s number, that he may still live in the White House but that for practical purposes his presidency is already over. It’s time — indeed, long past time — for him to prove them wrong.
ETHICS, POLITICS AND THE LAW EDITORIALNEW YORK TIMESWhen the court deals with social policy decisions, the law it shapes is inescapably political — which is why decisions split along ideological lines are so easily dismissed as partisan. The justices must address doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves accountable to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, as a result, convincing as law.
ASSASSINATION BY ROBOT: ARE WE JUSTIFIED? BY EUGENE ROBINSONWASHINGTON POSTWe urgently need to explore these issues, because the use of robotic aircraft — and, surely, robotic devices that operate on land and sea — will inevitably expand as the technology improves. And we need to relearn an ancient lesson: that no method of waging war is without risk or without consequences.
COLBERT, ROVE AND THE MOCKERY OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE BY DANA MILBANKWASHINGTON POSTAs a Colbert Show producer barked orders to her cameraman (“Gonzo, wide shot!”), Colbert remarked that Rove, who works for Fox News while also guiding the American Crossroads SuperPAC, should thank him for undermining the campaign-finance system. “I just made it perfectly above-board legal to talk about your SuperPAC on air and to use your corporate show to promote your SuperPAC in any way,” he said. Alas, when it comes to making a mockery of campaign-finance law, American Crossroads is way ahead of Colbert Nation.
AGAINST THE CLOCK IN AFGHANISTAN BY DAVID IGNATIUSWASHINGTON POSTThe Taliban’s greatest asset has been its ability to provide quick justice in a country shattered by war and corruption. ... The United States must help the Afghan government provide justice and other basics of governance in the Pashtun areas where the Taliban took root. An old Pashtun proverb says that “a country without law is a jungle,” and if the jungle remains, the Taliban wins.
HOW GROVER NORQUIST HYPNOTIZED THE GOP BY DEVAL PATRICKWASHINGTON POSTI’d like to think that the most prosperous nation in human history can have both freedom and security. I think we have reached a point where my personal success is not threatened by a program to help our parents retire with dignity. Voters are smart enough to see that taxes are one of the ways we get those things. They are the price we pay for civilization.
THE PERIL OF DEEP DEFENSE CUTS BY DONALD RUMSFELDWALL STREET JOURNALWhat [Panetta] has seen close up at the CIA he will experience each day in the extraordinary professionalism, capability and will of our fighting forces. The conventional wisdom seems to be that, as a former budget director, Mr. Panetta will know how to skillfully draw down the Pentagon in the "postwar" period to come. We ought to wish him success in proving the conventional wisdom wrong.