I wonder how many liberals would’ve voted for Barack Obama if he had stumped the nation with this campaign vow:“We’re fighting two wars, but as president I pledge to change that policy by ordering up a third. And I will do so by exercising the prerogatives of the imperial presidency. George W. Bush felt it was necessary to get congressional authorization for the war in Iraq, but I will do him one

MELBOURNE ― The international military intervention in Libya is not about bombing for democracy or for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s head ― let alone keeping oil prices down or profits up. Legally, morally, politically, and militarily, it has only one justification: protecting Libyans from the kind of murderous harm that Qaddafi inflicted on unarmed protestors four weeks ago; has continued to inflict

Did President Obama break the law when he ordered U.S. planes to bomb Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in Libya? Some critics think so. But as with all discussions of the wartime powers of Congress and the president, the law is less clear than partisans would like to admit.The principal legal argument against Obama is that he should have obtained a declaration of war or its equivalent from Congress. But e

Many automobile and electric appliance makers have been forced to suspend output as their production centers were crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit the Pacific coast of the Tohoku and Kanto regions.The road to full recovery from the disaster will be bumpy, but the manufacturing industry must play the role of a locomotive to drive the national economy. Manufacturers are urged

TOKYO ― The tsunami raced through the town at eight meters per second, the speed of a gold-medal sprinter. The wave’s height reached 15 meters, towering above even the highest pole-vault bars. Ships were heaved onto hills, and cars floated like boats. After the wave passed, a chaotic mountain of debris was all that was left of Kamaishi, Japan’s oldest steel-manufacturing town, in Iwate Prefecture.

Rumors have it that it was the product of a recent series of unsavory episodes in courts involving male and female judges, but a “service manual” prepared by a senior judge in Seoul and now circulating in district courts sheds light to a new culture emerging in the judicial community.“Leave the door ajar when you meet a female colleague in your office. Keep a distance of at least one meter when yo

The Defense Ministry has put off flying leaflets into the North Korean territory in consideration of political and legal factors. Yet, the campaign to send leaflets and consumer supplies by flying balloons into the North that has been engineered by some conservative groups not only sharpens tensions with Pyongyang but causes serious internal troubles in the South.Last year, the military’s psycholo

The United Nations, which has avoided direct military involvement in the popular revolts in several Arab countries, is launching military attacks on the Gadhafi regime to protect the rebel forces. The U.N. action, the composition and nature of the multinational force formed under a Security Council resolution, the reactions of major powers and Arab states to the Libyan civil war, and the U.S. acti

According to Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fire-breathing female monster, composed of three different animals: the head of a lioness, the body of a goat and a tail of a snake. Another version reveals that Chimera had three heads: a lion’s, a dragon’s and a goat’s. Genetically speaking, a chimera is an animal that has two or more heads, or more than one set of arms and feet growing on one body

Twenty-seven of the 31 North Koreans who had drifted into South Korean waters in the West Sea in a boat early last month have returned to the North. Four chose to live in the South, according to the authorities. Last week, six North Korean refugees who had stayed in China sailed to South Korea in a hired boat along with three Korean-Chinese people.We do not know what will happen to the 27 people w

Three years after President Lee Myung-bak abolished the Ministry of Science and Technology to slim down the government, an administrative commission was launched Monday to perform much the same task as the old ministry. Kim Doh-yeon who briefly served as the first minister of education, science and technology under President Lee was named chairman of the new commission.When the transition committe

For children who have suffered mental trauma as a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami, school can be a valuable forum in which to talk to friends and teachers and encourage each other.The situation remains severe in devastated areas, with no clear prospects for reconstruction, but we hope initial steps will be taken to put school life back in order.The March 11 disaster left enormous scars

I was a senior in college when Facebook came online. I got an account immediately, and a year later interviewed the founders for a magazine article oh-so-cleverly headlined “In Your FACE!”Clearly, I should’ve booked the next flight to Palo Alto and begged for stock options, but they struck me as arrogant. “Who do they think they are?” I thought. “They just run a little college website!”OK, I misse

AMSTERDAM ― Amid the horrifying news from Japan, the establishment of new standards of political leadership there is easy to miss ― in part because the Japanese media follow old habits of automatically criticizing how officials are dealing with the calamity, and many foreign reporters who lack perspective simply copy that critical tone. But, compared to the aftermath of the catastrophic Kobe earth

Here’s a crucial fact that you may not realize, given the week’s headlines: Libya is only a tragic sideshow to the historic events in the Middle East.Egypt is the place that counts when we consider the prospects for Arab democracy. Bahrain is the locale where Iran and the Saudis are contesting for power. Yemen, whose president is about to fall, is the country where a strong al-Qaida branch is base

“We don’t hate you because you’re famous. You’re famous because we hate you.”So went one of countless tweets about Rebecca Black, the eighth-grader whose music video “Friday” ― a robotic ditty about waking up in the morning and enduring the drudgery of the school week before reaching exalted Friday ― has become a surprise hit on YouTube.On Tuesday night, Black performed on Jay Leno, and as of Wedn

For the first time in history, Egyptians voted in a fully fair and free referendum on March 19. And while they celebrated this historic achievement, around the world, academics and human rights activists were bleating like stuck pigs.“There’s just not enough time for parties that haven’t existed before” to organize for upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, lamented Robert Springborg,

STANFORD ― California has long been a harbinger of national and global trends (both wonderful and overindulgent), a birthplace of innovation in everything from technology and entertainment to lifestyles. The world’s most important technology companies still make their start ― and their headquarters ― in California: Apple, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Google, and Facebook, to name a few in the neighborhoo

WASHINGTON ― The dramatic revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya have acted as a catalyst for a broader Arab awakening that has fundamentally shaken the Middle East’s political order, which has been in place since the late 1970s. While it is too early to predict the final outcomes, several important regional implications are already beginning to emerge.First, the revolts are a double-edged sword for

No party in Korea truly represents the entire nation, as evidenced by the outcome of the 2008 parliamentary elections. The electoral divide along the boundary between Yeongnam and Honam was as clear-cut as it could be.In the elections, the ruling Grand National Party carried none of the 31 electoral districts in the southwest region of Honam. On the other hand, the main opposition Democratic Party