‘What was Iran thinking? Maybe not what you think.’
Jason Rezaian in The Washington Post
Iran’s “dramatic weekend air assault on Israel” was a “spectacular failure,” says Jason Rezaian. The limited damage clarified that “Iran doesn’t have the means to mount a significant conventional response to Israeli might. And Tehran is painfully aware of this.” But that doesn’t mean the Islamic Republic poses no threat. It’s just likely to respond to any Israeli retaliation with “asymmetrical tactics” like abductions and assassinations, which are “unpredictable and cheap compared with military operations.”
‘Is Jan. 6 the political winner Democrats think it is?’
Jason L. Riley in The Wall Street Journal
President Joe Biden’s campaign strategy has been to “wrap Jan. 6” around former President Donald Trump’s neck, says Jason L. Riley. But what if the Supreme Court rejects the Justice Department’s use of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a response to the Enron scandal, to prosecute the rioters? A ruling against the government would “overturn convictions” and fuel Trump’s complaints of a political witch hunt. That could “turn Jan. 6 into a losing issue for Democrats.”
‘If 10 straight months of record-breaking heat isn’t a climate emergency, what is?’
Los Angeles Times editorial board
“The planet is experiencing a horrifying streak of record-breaking heat,” says the Los Angeles Times editorial board. March was the 10th straight month with the highest average global temperature ever recorded. “Despite everything we know about the effects of burning fossil fuels, humanity is still going in the wrong direction with self-destructive abandon,” belching more greenhouse gas pollution than ever. Everyone can help by voting for leaders who’ll do something about it.
‘Unlike COVID, we know debt crisis is coming. How will we explain why we didn’t act?’
Tom Giovanetti in The Miami Herald
Some major problems, like the Covid pandemic, “blindside us,” says Tom Giovanetti. But we “won’t be able to claim ignorance” when Social Security becomes insolvent in nine years. Without reform, we’ll have to slash benefits and contend with “more than $100 trillion in budget deficits that will drive interest on the national debt to unserviceable levels.” Our kids “will curse us for handing them this mess and refusing to deal with problems we can see are coming.”