When President Obama took office, he vowed to repair the damage done to America’s moral standing on the global stage. You may have hoped that human rights would become an organizing principle of our foreign policy. That the U.S. would finally try to engage pariah states like Iran and North Korea, or that Obama’s presidency [...]

When President Obama took office, he vowed to repair the damage done to America’s moral standing on the global stage. You may have hoped that human rights would become an organizing principle of our foreign policy. That the U.S. would finally try to engage pariah states like Iran and North Korea, or that Obama’s presidency [...]

When President Obama took office, he vowed to repair the damage done to America’s moral standing on the global stage. You may have hoped that human rights would become an organizing principle of our foreign policy. That the U.S. would finally try to engage pariah states like Iran and North Korea, or that Obama’s presidency [...]

WASHINGTON — Although the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is best remembered by the American public for fighting against racial discrimination, he was also an outspoken opponent of war and violence, most notably of the war in Vietnam. A top Obama administration official at the Department of Defense, however, argued Thursday that if King were [...]

WASHINGTON — Although the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is best remembered by the American public for fighting against racial discrimination, he was also an outspoken opponent of war and violence, most notably of the war in Vietnam. A top Obama administration official at the Department of Defense, however, argued Thursday that if King were [...]

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law legislation that will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and allow gay and lesbian citizens to serve openly in the Armed Forces. Watching it was exhilarating. But our gay men and women in uniform deserve more than the right to serve openly, they deserve the right to serve equally. Without [...]

Seventeen years after Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” compromise, the institutionalized closet in the military should soon be gone. With the Senate vote to repeal, lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans have won the right to serve openly without fear of losing their jobs. Next it should be all workers. Congress needs to pass a [...]

The House of Representatives has just voted overwhelmingly to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which forbids gays from openly serving their country. The vote was an impressive 250 to 175 — which is 16 more votes for repeal than the previous tally in the House (when they voted on the issue [...]

“American exceptionalism” — the narcissistic soundtrack of several presidential aspirants for 2012 — is Un-American. The boast betrays ignorance of the Founding Fathers and the tarnished history of the United States. In any event, to overlook faults because other nations are more flawed is juvenile, and leads nowhere. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney scribbles in, [...]

U.S. and allied military gains in Afghanistan have failed to yield corresponding progress in delivery of humanitarian aid or protection of women from violence and discrimination, the United Nations said. Access of aid workers to areas of southern Afghanistan where U.S.-led military forces are concentrating efforts to defeat Taliban insurgents hasn’t improved and has worsened [...]