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After 20 days of war

National Columnists

Four years and 25 days. Twenty days. There's a huge difference between those two numbers. The first number — 1,486 days altogether — is the length of time since Russian troops crossed the Ukraine border on Feb. 22, 2022, and headed for Kyiv. The second number — just 20 days — is the number of days since U.S. and Israeli forces on Feb. 28 began bombing strategic targets in Iran. The two attacks have this in common: Their initial responses were far different from what many experts, in the United States and beyond, expected and predicted. Back in 2022, the conventional ...

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Democratic-NPL is in touch with ND voters Carter Hass Valley City Three years ago I would’ve laughed at the idea of going to the ND Dem-NPL State Convention. But on March 7, 2026, I found myself, at 18 years old, attending as a delegate from District 24. Needless to say, I was shocked by what I heard. The North Dakota Democrats were primarily focused on economic policy, not culture wars. In fact, when I proposed a resolution calling for the party’s support of banning individual stock trading by members of Congress, it received resounding applause and passed unanimously. For a ...

What does affordability really mean?

National Columnists

At some point, the headlines turned "affordability" from a concern into a "crisis." But what does affordability mean? For most of us, that depends on what we consider our minimum requirements for happiness. If you look at TikTok, life in New York City is a fairy tale of chic bars, eggs topped with caviar and everyone looking conspicuously stylish. For much of Gen Z, TikTok is what they know of the expensive cities they and plenty of others dream of frolicking in. The music. The sunsets. The screenshot bait. They set their hearts on the pricey neighborhoods paraded across ...

Iran is losing. why pretend otherwise?

National Columnists

Don't fall for the propaganda. Iran is not holding its own in this conflict. It is being systematically dismantled. One by one, the senior figures of the Islamic Republic have been eliminated: generals, security chiefs and regime power brokers. The country's leadership has been decapitated at the highest levels, leaving behind a hollowed-out command structure struggling to function. Even the regime's attempts at continuity appear shaky. A successor was hastily elevated, but reports suggest instability, absence and internal disarray at the very top. Whatever facade of order ...

Second coming of DOGE

National Columnists

President Trump has signed an executive order creating a task force to crackdown on fraud in government programs. It will be headed by Vice President JD Vance. This is the administration's second effort to reduce government misspending and overspending following Elon Musk's effort as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. As we approach another April 15 with a $38 trillion debt (and counting) addressing fraud is something that ought to be a bipartisan goal. The fact that it hasn't been a priority for politicians is largely because, I suspect, it isn't their money ...

Iran challenges US shipping power

National Columnists

The reason why we have the Fifth Fleet, one of the most awesome naval forces ever assembled in the history of mankind, is to protect the sea lanes in the Middle East. That the Strait of Hormuz is now effectively closed is not just a blow to the global economy and a key point of leverage for the Iranian regime, it is an assault against one of the foundations of American power. Guarding the safe passage of commerce has been a core Anglo-American commitment for a couple of centuries, with the baton of naval leadership passing from the British to the United States around the time of ...