WASHINGTON (AP) — After 40 years of working for presidents from both parties, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he's learned that it takes bipartisan support to succeed in national security and foreign affairs.
What worries Gates as he prepares to step down this month as Pentagon chief is how partisanship is seeping into those areas.
Gates says …
Today is Thursday, June 17, the 168th day of 2009. There are 197 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1397 - Erik of Pomerania is crowned king of Norway, Denmark and Sweden in Kalmar, Sweden, marking the beginning of the Kalmar Union that unites the three countries until 1523.
1567 - Mary Queen of Scots is imprisoned by Scottish rebels in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.
1579 - Sir Francis Drake proclaims England's sovereignty over New Albion (California).
1665 - Spanish are defeated by Portuguese and British at Montes Claros, and further victory at Villa Viciosa secures Portuguese independence.
…
Many progressive-minded Canadians breathed a sigh of relief at the outcome of January's election. Despite the remaking of Stephen Harper as a centrist politician with a relatively moderate centreright platform-not to mention the disastrous Liberal campaign-the Conservatives managed only a slim plurality of seats with a mere 36% of the less than two-thirds of Canadians who voted.
Most pundits believe that the Conservatives will be on a short leash for the next two years or less. They do not have natural ideological allies in this Parliament. Harper Conservatives will have to move cautiously, building consensus to get legislation through the House. They are not expected to stray far …
No country should have more to fear from Pakistan's slide toward instability than India.
In the six decades since an independent India and Pakistan rose from the flames of the bloody partition of the subcontinent, the South Asian rivals have stared at each other across heavily armed frontiers with implacable hostility, fought three wars and engaged in tit-for-tat atomic tests.
Yet as Pakistan has stumbled in recent months from a military dictatorship to a state of emergency, to the uncertainty in the wake of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, India's reactions have been tempered _ even calm.
India put its troops on a …
The Rev. Aengus Finucane, a Roman Catholic missionary and Irish aid pioneer who braved civil wars and learned he must "fight like hell to do any good," died Tuesday, his charity announced. He was 77.
"There can be few Irish people of his generation, or of any other generation, who have contributed as much to improving the lives of so much of humanity," said Tom Arnold, chief executive of the Concern charity that Finucane spent decades promoting.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen called the priest "a selfless and brave man who traveled to many of the world's most dangerous places to help the poor. ... His courageous efforts saved a huge …
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) thinks the Reaganadministration's proposal for peace in Nicaragua is a trick to suckerthe Congress into approving more lethal aid for the contra rebels.Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) thinks the White House is selling out thecontras, "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."
We must hope that Mr. Reagan's proposal is neither a ploy nor asurrender - just the simple recognition that helping Nicaraguans tomaim and murder each other does not serve the cause of freedom, orthe security interests of the United States.
Perhaps the Iran-contra hearings have taught this president thathis oft-expressed zeal for overthrowing Nicaragua's …
WASHINGTON - Sen. Norm Coleman attended Woodstock and even did a video for a planned museum commemorating the famous music festival. But the Minnesota Republican recently voted against spending $1 million to help with the effort, saying government has better things to do with its money.
"I was at Woodstock. I have been to the site of the Woodstock museum," Coleman said last week. "It's a wonderful museum. That doesn't mean the government has to pay for it."
This month, in a mostly party-line 52-42 vote, Coleman voted with the majority to strip the $1 million earmark sought by New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, both Democrats. In another tie to the …
