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What is purpose of NATO in 2026?

National Columnists

One month into Operation Epic Fury against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a long-overdue conversation has finally broken into the open: What, exactly, is the enduring rationale for NATO? For decades, this question has been treated in Washington foreign policy circles as heretical. But it isn't. And to their credit, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are now saying so plainly. As Trump recently put it, "They haven't been friends when we needed them. We've never asked them for much. ... It's a one-way street." At best, America's European "allies" have spent ...

Bombeck's legacy is humor, belonging

National Columnists

Last week's Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, celebrated 25 years of the conference. The University of Dayton held the first workshop in 2000 as a one-time event to commemorate the Bombeck family's gift of Erma's papers to her alma mater. It turns out once just wasn't enough, and now there's no hint of stopping it. The conference sells out quickly and is known to have a long waiting list. I've wanted to attend the conference ever since I first began publishing essays and columns in the early 2000s. In 2012, I attended for the first time, and now I can't imagine not going. ...

Iran's other enemies

National Columnists

It's not just Israel. One of the least convincing arguments of opponents of the Iran war is that it is a conflict initiated by the Jewish state for its own benefit — the U.S. is just along for the ride. This view not only discounts the U.S. interest in defanging Iran, but neglects that there are other countries in the region besides Israel and Iran and that they, too, have a stake in the outcome of this war. If there's anything that Iran has succeeded in doing over the first month of battle, it is further demonstrating the intolerable threat that it represents to the region. The ...

The day that changed ND forever

Local Columnists

On April 4, 1951, a quiet stretch of land near Tioga became the birthplace of a transformation no one could fully imagine. When Amerada Petroleum struck oil at the Clarence Iverson #1 well, it didn’t just uncover energy — it launched an economic era that continues to shape North Dakota’s ...

Opposing perspectives doesn’t indicate party in trouble

Letters to the Editor

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates were deeply divided. Each delegate thought they held the plan for the best way forward. These men, our founding fathers, were ready to walk away, and let their egos get in the way of progress. But did they, no. There were many disagreements. Disagreements over the issue of slavery, the strength of the executive branch, commerce, equal representation, and state vs. federal powers. But to the surprise of many there was what they called the “Great Compromise.” They debated, they ...

Easter weekend time to pause, reflect, rediscover

National Columnists

There are moments in history when the noise of the world grows so loud that it drowns out the quiet truths we most need to hear. War dominates headlines. Moral confusion clouds judgment. Division becomes the language of public life. And in such moments, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday arrive not as distant religious observances but as urgent invitations to pause, to reflect and to rediscover what it means to be whole. Good Friday is, at its core, a confrontation with suffering. It is not comfortable. It is not triumphant. It does not offer easy answers. It asks us ...