The Opinions Essay
Latest Essays
(For The Washington Post)
It wasn’t hubris that drove America into Afghanistan. It was fear.
Americans may consider their Afghan experience a failure. They would do it all over again if given the choice.
America forgot how to make proper pie. Can we remember before it’s too late?
Americans invented the dessert we call pie. Why are they letting it die?
In Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s clerics have groomed and promoted their ruthless enforcer
The dilemma for the Biden administration may not be the potential for arms control but how to deal with a mass murderer facing a mass uprising.
Germany faced its horrible past. Can we do the same?
For too long, we've ignored our real history. We must face where truth can take us.
How Nancy Reagan helped end the Cold War
Behind the scenes, the first lady curbed her husband's worst instincts.
How covid hastened the decline and fall of the U.S.-China relationship
Trump tried to make friends with Xi. Then came covid.
The reach of authoritarian repression is growing. Now, not even exile is safe.
In the age of interconnected technology, living abroad is no guarantee of freedom to dissent.
Trump’s new reality: Ex-president, private citizen and, perhaps, criminal defendant
The stark lesson of the last four years is that the failure to hold a president to account only leads to more conduct for which the president should be held to account.
More Opinions Features
(Hailey Sadler)
For Navajo, crowded homes have always been a lifeline. The pandemic threatens that.
For many Navajo, multigenerational homes became one of the deadliest places to be during the pandemic. Solutions are needed to protect both their health and tradition of living together.
Inside the mind of someone who won’t take a fully approved vaccine
There will be no micro ships in their bloodstream.
Gavin Newsom is in trouble. Here’s why.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the top Democrat in the nation's biggest blue state. So why is he in danger of being recalled?
Haiti’s earthquake is the latest insult on top of too many injuries
This is Haiti: a country where catastrophes, natural and man-made, are relentless, battering and burying my people at every turn.
Good intentions and seductive illusions: Scenes from Afghanistan’s long descent
U.S. commanders kept convincing themselves they were making progress. But hope is not a strategy.
Turkey’s wildfires tell a devastating story of neglect and failure
Having long misdirected resources to foreign military adventures and mega infrastructure projects, the government failed to deliver in a time of need.
I’m excited to have my second baby. Why are others so skeptical this time?
One pregnant woman is doing her part to reduce the nationwide baby shortage.
Sharing the Wealth
A five-part editorial series examining the growing wealth gap in America — and how to fix it.
We’re all in this together — unless you’re a Republican
If today’s Republicans had lived through World War II, it’d be hard to picture them banding together for the common good, as Americans did then.
Police reform is not enough. We need to rethink public safety.
We should think about public safety the way we think about public health.
From the Archives
How our democracy has made dependency a right
Progressives want to dilute the concept of individualism, but that’s antithetical to America’s premise.
Want to build a far-right movement? Spain’s Vox party shows how.
Vox blazed across the Internet, dividing its country. Now it’s in parliament.
The strongmen strike back
Authoritarianism has reemerged as the greatest threat to the liberal democratic world — a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge. And we have no idea how to confront it.
Iran has reinvented the hostage crisis, 40 years later
Taking hostages has become a tool of diplomacy.
Jamal Khashoggi: A missing voice, a growing chorus
The quests that animated the Saudi journalist’s life cannot be so easily defeated.
China tried to erase the memory of Tiananmen Square. But its legacy lives on.
Three decades after the crackdown, Beijing is still terrified of the movement and what it stood for.
As brands keep wading in, it’s time to ask: Is Pride for sale?
Pride celebrations and the corporations that sponsor them are deeply intertwined, with far-reaching consequences.
Voices of the Movement podcast: Stories from civil rights leaders who changed America
A collection of memories from the past and lessons for the future from the people who lived through the movement, as told through a nine-episode podcast series.
‘If you don’t get at that rot, you just get more officers like Josh Hastings’
The shooting of 15-year-old Bobby Moore revealed a horror show of misconduct, cover-up and cascading institutional failure at the Little Rock Police Department.
She reported her rape. Her hometown turned against her. Can justice ever be served?
Twelve years later, past and present residents of Arlington, Tex., are still reckoning with Amber Wyatt’s story.
Trump’s travel ban is tearing couples apart: ‘My entire life has been put on hold’
One is American. The other is Iranian. This short film shows what happens when the U.S. government keeps you from your spouse.
Gun reforms can save lives. Science proves it.
Those who oppose reforms say nothing can be done. That’s demonstrably wrong.
The tweets, statements and speeches that defined Trump’s first year as president
We present the highlights: Year One of the Trump administration, as told by those who are (or were) part of it.
The one best idea for ending sexual harassment
We asked 16 leaders what one change could help stop sexual harassment in their fields.
Ken Burns wants ‘The Vietnam War’ to unite America. Can anyone do that under Trump?
When the filmmaker started his new series, he had no idea it would coincide with the most divisive era since Vietnam.
How police censorship shaped Hollywood
The police story is one of the elemental dramas of American popular culture.
