Opinion: In today’s pages: Charles Taylor, Madeleine Albright, and Dr. Phil
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The editorial board is grateful that Liberia’s Charles Taylor is finally on trial:
Taylor is just one in a depressingly long line of deposed African leaders who bled their countries dry in brutal wars against their own people and plundered their national treasuries. Yet while most of his fellow vampires have died in luxurious exile, Taylor finds himself in a detention center in Holland, stalking quarters formerly occupied by ex-Yugoslavian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.... He is on trial not for the circus of murder in Liberia for which he was ringmaster during his presidential term — a conflict that shocked the world as child soldiers loyal to Taylor, high on amphetamines and other drugs, charged into battle naked or wearing women’s ball gowns — but for his role in the gruesome civil war in next-door Sierra Leone that ended in 2003.
The board asks for the recall of Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, and examines a voter identification case before the Supreme Court.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright says democracy needs defending now more than ever. Columnist Jonah Goldberg explores voting in the age of Dr. Phil, and SUNY Cortland’s Robert J. Spitzer thinks Bush ignored the Constitution when he vetoed a defense spending bill.
Readers react to the presidential campaigns on the day of the New Hampshire primary. San Francisco’s James Keefer says, ‘Are we Californians or are we sheep? We have more votes than many small states combined — are we to be prevented from voting our choice? Let’s wait until Feb. 5 and not be intimidated by these early indicators.’