If we were not pressured by the school system, our son Matt would still be alive today.

"Six Americans dead and 34 wounded. What a terrible waste. I have a hard time understanding why a group of naval warriors gathered closely together out in the open, creating a super-juicy target for an Iraqi insurgent mortar team that’s been hammering Base Junction City ever since our troops first set up there. ‘Always spread out, or one round will get you all,’ was the First Commandment of Survival when I was a kid serving in Italy. The terrible tragedy that occurred in Iraq last May underscores the importance of this often-neglected rule."—Col. David Hackworth

Unless there are major changes soon, America's economic future is a Third World workforce with a banana democracy's worthless currency, warns Paul Craig Roberts.

Defusing the Taiwan issue can be a big step toward global peace. If no effort is taken from Washington, then war is not only possible, it is also inevitable, says Charles Smith.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has touched off a political fight with Montana Republicans after calling for the return of National Guard troops serving in Iraq to help out in what many fear will be a record-setting wildfire season. The bulk of the Guard's helicopters - critical in shuttling fire crews and equipment to blazes - are unavailable, either because they are in Iraq or their aviation officers are absent.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn't especially want to be introducing Bolton as American's next ambassador to the U.N., some Bush administration officials say, and she had refused to make him her chief deputy despite what even Bolton's friends admit was his intense campaign to win that post last fall. No surprise, then, that Rice seemed ill at ease last week, her smile dimmer than usual, says one official at the announcement

Some 103 suspected members of a violent criminal street gang that has been linked to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have been arrested in seven U.S. cities, the government announced today.The target of the massive sting operation was Mara Salvatruchas gang – also known as MS-13 – whose members have been known to behead victims and attack with grenades and machetes -WorldNetDaily

A US government watchdog agency says Pentagon data on Iraqi security forces was "unreliable" and also showed there was an escalating insurgency.Assessing the readiness of Iraqis to take over national security has become a crucial factor in judging when the United States and coalition partner Australia will be able to start withdrawing from Iraq -ABC News AU

Pentagon auditors questioned more than $108 million in costs claimed by Halliburton on its $875 million contract to provide fuel in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, according to records released Monday.The Defense Contract Audit Agency also faulted Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR for failing to provide the records necessary to evaluate spending on the contract

All too often, the remedies politicians put forward for problems they have created only make matters worse.That is definitely the case with the Bush Administration's proposal to "reform" Social Security.To date, however, next to no one has recognized that, constitutionally, the Administration's scheme is a Trojan Horse: one of the most dangerously open-ended assertions of blatantly unconstitutional power to come out of Washington in decades -Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr./NewsWithViews

The Bush Administration has now at least partially repudiated its notorious "torture memos" -- suggesting the President need not heed the Geneva Conventions. Yet a series of events over the past few weeks indicates that this repudiation hardly suggests an intent on the Administration's part to begin complying with international law -Noah Leavitt/FindLaw

Unlike Tung, the Shanghai-born heir to a Hong Kong shipping empire, Tsang does not come from a privileged background.The eldest son of a policeman, Tsang joined the civil service—Hong Kong's iron rice bowl—soon after high school.His diligence and loyalty pleased his British masters, who sent him to Harvard to get a master's in public administration and granted him a knighthood -Time

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner met his Chilean counterpart Ricardo Lagos on Monday in his first official visit to Chile.The meeting comes at a time of heightened tension between the neighboring countries because of a gas dispute.Argentina’s decision to ration gas exports to Chile in order to satisfy internal demand has already had repercussions on several industries in central Chile -Santiago Times CL

Residents of the house where authorities said Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in Tolstoy-Kurt denied that he had been hiding in their basement, casting doubt on Moscow's accounts of the killing.The Federal Security Service said Maskhadov was killed in a special operation last Tuesday

More than 800,000 people surged into central Beirut yesterday, demanding an end to Syria's near-three decade military domination of Lebanon.Some Lebanese television stations reckoned the crowd at 1.5 million -Gulf Daily News BH

Pro-government candidates swept parliamentary elections Sunday in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, according to official returns released Monday.The opposition, which had viewed the vote as a test of its strength in advance of the presidential election this fall, was left with only six seats in the 75-member chamber -Washington Post

The United States, Canada and Mexico should form a "common security perimeter" as part of a broad security and economic plan aimed at boosting trade and bolstering the continent's borders, a tri-national task for report urged Monday.

China's threat Monday to oppose Taiwanese independence with military force triggered a call for peaceful dialogue from Japan and a discussion of Australia's treaty obligations should a war break out. But Russia and Pakistan supported Beijing's new legislation.

"I have had senior politicians privately call [the neo-cons] Brown Shirts. I have asked why don’t [the senior politicians] say this in public and there is response is that it would be political suicide."

Withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional, court says.