Editorial Roundup: Excerpts From Recent Editorials

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

May 19:

The Oregonian, Portland, on Chinese-made solar panels:

In the great chess match known as doing business with China, last week's U.S. move to slap tariffs of up to 250 percent on Chinese-made solar panels raises the stakes to showdown status. The next move is China's, to be taken as soon as Friday, and it could be retaliatory against solar manufacturers in Oregon and elsewhere.

But if China, which promptly denounced the tariffs, wished to surprise us and play by internationally accepted rules, it would first protest to the U.S. Commerce Department. Failing to find satisfaction, it would then take its complaint against the tariffs straight to the World Trade Organization.

Meanwhile, Hillsboro-based SolarWorld, the American manufacturing arm of Germany's SolarWorld, basks cautiously in the glow of having successfully brought a complex grievance forward. ...

Many U.S. solar contractors buy and sell the cheaper Chinese panels and declare that their operating margins depend upon it. ...

The WTO, to which China belongs, should pay close attention. President Barack Obama certainly will, as he continues in his struggle to strike a bargain with China on trade policies while knowing full well that China's behemoth economy is to be reckoned with, not dismissed. Meanwhile, anyone who cares about the future of global trade, which is as local as it gets, should stay tuned.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee on foreign trade, had it right in telling Read that innovation and the creation of the best products should drive competition and global commerce -- and not who's best at dodging the rules.

Online:

http://www.oregonlive.com

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May 20

New York Times on Alzheimer's disease:

The Obama administration has announced a bold research program to test whether a drug can prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease well before any symptoms appear. It is a long shot, but the payoff could be huge.

Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer's, which steadily robs patients of their memory, followed by full-blown dementia. There is also no diagnostic test to identify who has it, and no treatment to slow patients' deterioration for more than a few months.

While work continues on those fronts, the new clinical trial will test whether the drug, Crenezumab, made by Genentech, can prevent the disease in a group of people whose genetic heritage guarantees that they will develop it. ...

The study will cost more than $100 million and is being financed mostly by Genentech, buttressed by $16 million from the National Institutes of Health and $15 million raised by the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix, which is leading the study.

The prevailing, but not universally accepted, hypothesis is that amyloid plaques in the brain play a major role in causing Alzheimer's. Crenezumab attacks the formation of such plaques, apparently by binding to amyloid proteins and clearing them from the brain. If the drug fails to work, the trial will probably demolish the amyloid hypothesis and set researchers scrambling to find other targets to attack.

A prevention trial of a different drug that was also intended to slow formation of amyloid plaques actually made patients' symptoms worse, possibly because it interfered with various other proteins needed by the brain. ...

More than five million Americans currently have Alzheimer's. Without an effective preventive, the number will rise steadily as the population ages.

Online:

http://www.nytimes.com

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May 22

The Los Angeles Times on Honduras:

As the war on drugs has spread from Mexico to Central America, so has the U.S. role in Honduras. Pentagon contracts are helping to fund new military bases in remote regions of that country, and U.S. troops and special Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been deployed to train local security forces and assist in counter-narcotics operations.

It's a delicate partnership, and one that is already causing controversy. Last week the Obama administration confirmed that DEA agents were with Honduran security forces aboard a U.S. helicopter during a botched May 11 operation. Four civilians, including two pregnant women, were allegedly killed after the helicopter fired on a canoe during a predawn raid, local authorities said. U.S. officials insist that the DEA agents were participating only in an advisory capacity and were not involved in the shooting, but several Honduran officials have described the raid as a DEA mission.

The incident raises more questions than it answers. ...

One thing is clear: The U.S. military role should be extremely limited and carefully monitored. There is little dispute that Honduras, ravaged by drug-related violence, needs help. It has the hemisphere's highest homicide rate. Crime and corruption are rampant, and likely to worsen, thanks to a cascade of drug money. Legal and political institutions are weak, and human rights are too often only an abstraction.

But as Rep.Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) recently noted, simply sending more boots and guns to Honduras may have the effect of exacerbating problems rather than helping solve them, given concerns that the country's security forces are involved in serious human rights violations. The police in particular are known for corruption and should not be empowered.

Military assistance alone is not enough. Surely it is just as important to buttress democracy by strengthening civilian institutions in Honduras, while clamping down on gunrunners in the U.S. who help supply weapons to the cartels ...

Online:

http://www.latimes.com

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May 21

The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, on the FDA and a home HIV test:

Here are three sobering statistics about health, life and death to contemplate.

In the United States, 619,000 people have died of AIDS in the past 30 years. Worldwide, the death toll surpasses 30 million. And contrary to conservative assertions, the vast majority are or were heterosexual.

Another 1.2 million people in the U.S. are infected with the HIV virus and/or have AIDS. And even more disturbing, an estimated 250,000 of them don't know it.

With that potentially devastating number in mind, a panel of Food and Drug Administration experts voted 17-0 last week to approve an over-the-counter HIV test kit that can be used at home.

It was a sound decision, even with the test's potential shortcoming. In studies, it produced false positive and negative results, proving correct 93 percent of the time. In contrast, HIV tests done by professional labs are 99 percent accurate.

The FDA must decide if that difference is cause to approve or nix the world's first home-administered test, or if giving people a reasonable chance to know their status and seek medical help is better for them and the people they might infect than not knowing.

The conundrum of course is not for those who will get a false positive. ...

What people don't know can kill them. Knowing saves lives. So assuming the FDA approves the HIV home test, which may cost about $40, people who don't know their status and are sufficiently responsible to worry about it might be persuaded to take the test. ...

While not perfect, if nothing else an over-the-counter HIV test - like a pregnancy test - might give people the courage, or the righteous fear, to seek further testing. That's what second opinions are for, and why they're so important.

Online:

http://www.thehawkeye.com

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May 20

The Kansas City (Mo.) Star on the agricultural version of Fannie Mae:

While the U.S. economy as a whole remains sluggish, the farm sector has been doing well. Exceptionally well, in fact.

Last year net farm income was a record $101 billion, and it's expected to be only slightly off the pace in 2012. With the national debt ballooning and the federal deficit still well over $1 trillion, you'd think lawmakers would be determined to seriously scale back taxpayer support for agriculture.

But you'd be wrong. True, the farm bill endorsed recently by the Senate Agriculture Committee calls for a $23 billion drop in farm programs over 10 years. Yet that's just $2.3 billion a year a pittance relative to the deficit.

The bill does include a few welcome changes. ...

The Senate bill would add the shallow loss program on top of that. If a producer's revenue fell below 89 percent of a baseline, the farmer could file a claim. A coalition of farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, supported the plan, calling insurance a "core risk management tool.."

But under this bill, there wouldn't be much risk left to manage. This isn't "socialized" agriculture, strictly speaking; the government no longer tells farmers what to plant and how many acres to sow. If the taxpayer is picking up almost all the risk, however, it begins to look like the agricultural version of Fannie Mae's business plan: privatized profits, socialized risk.

Keep in mind that producers of many crops, such as fruits and vegetables as well as beef and poultry, somehow manage to survive largely free of taxpayer subsidies. ...

Pat Roberts of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the Senate measure belonged in the familiar category of "not the best possible bill but the best bill possible." If that discouraging evaluation proves correct, then the prospect of ever seeing real spending discipline in Washington seems pretty remote.

Online:

http://www.kansascity.com

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May 19

The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle on U.S.-Mexican border violence:

It's amazing what a difference an artificial border, a line on a map, can make.

There's a grotesque war going on just south of the U.S.-Mexican border, with death tolls and horrors and headless bodies that would make Americans recoil if it all were occurring in Afghanistan.

They're calling it the "Triangle of Death" - an area of northern Mexico near Monterrey bordered by major highways where the recent discovery of 49 decapitated bodies dumped by the road was the third such massacre in 10 days.

The unspeakable butchery is the product of Mexican drug cartels fighting each other for dominance - and the Mexican government's abject failure to get on top of it ...

The violence, of course, is closely connected with America's insatiable appetite for illegal drugs - a "victimless" crime that nevertheless leaves a trail of red carnage - and this country's inability to control its border with Mexico.

How many people do you suppose have been killed in the unchecked violence since 2006? Try more than 50,000. ...

What's going on?

Online:

http://www.chronicle.augusta.com

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May 18

The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., on a newly discovered Mayan calendar:

It's scientifically safe to make plans for 2013. The world will not end on Dec. 21 or the default date of Dec. 23, according to a newly discovered Mayan calendar.

If an incomplete ancient Mayan calendar, enthusiastically embraced by New Age cultists and those of an exceedingly gloomy pessimism, were to be believed, it didn't matter who won the November election because none of us would be around for the inauguration.

If the Mayans were so smart, you might ask, how come their civilization is no longer around, having collapsed in 900 A.D., leaving behind spectacular, if overgrown and crumbling, ruins and at least one calendar to terrify the gullible.

But a team of scientists, led by archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, has found the workshop of an ancient Mayan calendar maker, in the unexcavated Guatemalan city of Xultun.

In a small, relatively intact building, Saturno found extensive columns of figures, tracking the movements of the moon, Mars and Venus. Each column was headed by a representation of one of the three moon gods a jaguar, a woman and a skull.

The calendar spans 7,000 years and we seem to be halfway through, meaning doomsday is still 3,500 years off. "So much for the supposed end of the world," said Saturno ..

Online:

http://www.commercialappeal.com

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May 21

The Herald-Sun of Durham on Facebook's future:

If you have the chance, look up the video or transcript of a 2005 interview and question-and-answer session that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave at Stanford University. It is fascinating not only for its time-capsule elements - photos were just starting to be shared on the site; only college students could join at the time, with plans to soon add high schoolers; it was still known as "TheFacebook" - but also for how forward-thinking the young Zuckerberg seemed, even back then.

He was questioned about his "exit strategy" toward the end of the hour-long discussion, particularly how he planned to "best monetize as an exit strategy."

Zuckerberg's response? ...

Facebook is everywhere; it has more than 900 million and counting, as of this month. But Facebook is already coming under heat for pricing the offering too high, for its slowing revenue growth and for advertising sales that are slackening as well. Never mind that it was the second-biggest IPO in American history, according to Bloomberg.

But most likely, it is not those criticisms that are most important to members of the public. ...

An Associated Press-CNBC poll found that just 13 percent trust that Facebook will protect their personal information.

Does Facebook fill a need for its users? Without a doubt. But when it comes to privacy and Facebook, a degree of skepticism beyond the examination of profit margins is healthy for all of us. One can wish the company and its backers success, while also taking a wait-and-see approach over the long term ...

Online:

http://www.herald-sun.com

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May 23

Khaleej Times, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Afghanistan's future format:

President Barack Obama's dramatic arrival in Kabul aboard Air Force One under the cover of darkness was fitting finale to the cloak-and-dagger operation that eliminated Osama bin Laden a year earlier.

The trip also marked a symbolic beginning of the end of American intervention in Afghanistan that was occasioned by bin Laden's daring 2001 assault on the US. Obama offered clarification of the US aim in coming years as troops withdraw, opening the door to regional powers playing a role.

During the brief visit the US and Afghanistan signed the much-awaited strategic partnership agreement, which stipulates that the Afghan security forces take the lead in combat operations by the end of next year and US troops withdraw by the end of 2014. ...

Afghanistan's national security adviser ... described the pact as "providing a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world, and is a document for the development of the region." Of course, he's right in so far as this pact removes the ambiguity surrounding America's post-2014 posture in Afghanistan, not only for Kabul but also for New Delhi where there's been growing concern about implications for regional stability after American withdrawal.

This is also a signal to the Taliban and other extremist groups that waiting out American forces might no longer be as credible an option as it may have once seemed. Washington's new message will have particular resonance in India and Pakistan as ties between the two South Asian neighbors remain the most important fault line in shaping Afghanistan's future.

As Washington and Kabul turn a new page in the Afghanistan saga, New Delhi should be keen to take this opportunity to become a more credible actor in its neighborhood. Washington has played its hand. It's up to New Delhi to respond adequately.

Online:

http://www.khaleejtimes.com

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May 22

The Globe and Mail, Toronto, on Prime Minister Harper has chosen the right time to leave Afghanistan:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was once accused by the Liberals of improvising the war in Afghanistan, as if one could script a decade-long war ahead of time. He has now announced an end to the Canadian military mission as of March 31, 2014. It is the right thing to do, at the right time.

Enough is enough - until the next one.

The fatigue in this country with the loss of life of Canadian soldiers, the intermittent progress, the government corruption, the obstacles that never seem to diminish, such as Pakistan playing both sides, and the enormous financial burden, is overwhelming.

Both Canada and Afghanistan benefited in many ways from this country's military efforts. ...

Afghanistan did not revert to being a refuge for the terrorists of al-Qaeda - the primary reason for the war. Millions of girls went to school who otherwise would not have, and women assumed roles in the Afghan parliament. But girls and women are still being jailed for such "moral crimes" as fleeing rape, abuse or underage marriage. And the Afghan National Army is far from ready to keep the country secure from the violent zealotry of the Taliban. ...

Canada did its part with impressive resolve in an unwinnable counterinsurgency war, gaining valuable military expertise but losing 158 soldiers. The day is coming when Afghanistan will be in the lead role when its faces its enemies. That day could not be put off forever.

Online:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

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May 23

China Daily, Beijing, on positive progress needed on nuclear program:

The talks between six world powers and Iran on its nuclear program mark the latest efforts by the international community to build on the recent momentum that has led to hopes of a peaceful solution to the long-standing issue.

The discussions, which began in Baghdad on Wednesday, follow the positive meeting between Iran and the P5+1 powers the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany on April 14 in Istanbul. All the parties concerned should show sincerity and exchange their views frankly so that the good momentum can be maintained.

China hopes the Baghdad talks will yield positive results and it is willing to play a constructive role and maintain smooth communication with all the parties to ensure further progress is made to resolve the crisis peacefully. ...

The Istanbul talks ended on a positive note, which eased the rising tension between Tehran and the US-led West that were teetering on the brink of armed confrontation. However, the US Senate's approval of fresh sanctions against Iran on Monday adds new uncertainties to the relationship between the West and Iran.

The relevant parties must properly handle their differences so that they can build mutual trust, this means the parties should respect each other's interests and accommodate each other's concerns ...

Online:

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn

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May 23

The Australian, Sydney on NATO support for Afghanistan:

In agreeing to provide substantial, ongoing help to Afghanistan after the last NATO-led forces, including our own, leave at the end of 2014, Julia Gillard is on the right track.

Her pledge of $300 million to the $4.1 billion fund US President Barack Obama is creating for the Afghan National Army after the allies withdraw is among the largest from any of the countries fighting in Afghanistan.

It also provides a timely signal that, though we are on our way out of the country, we remain committed to doing whatever we can to ensure it never again becomes a haven for terrorism. The sacrifice of the 33 Australians killed in Afghanistan, as well as the 200 who have been wounded, demands no less.

That said, there is a need for caution and realism about what lies ahead. ...

For all the hope surrounding the 2014 deadline and the ability of Afghans to fight their own war, the prospects remain challenging. They would be transformed if peace talks with the Taliban were able to make progress. But hopes for them are bedevilled by the situation in Pakistan, whose government continues to allow the insurgents a virtual free rein and seeks to exploit for its own ends the vital supply routes from the port of Karachi needed to service NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Much has been achieved in Afghanistan. But much remains to be done. And the need to do whatever is needed to ensure the country does not again become a base for international terrorism will be as vital to Australia's national interests after 2014 as it is now.

Online:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au