Editorials from around Oregon

Selected editorials from Oregon newspapers:

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The Eugene Register-Guard, Aug. 23, on Trump’s least bad option

Donald Trump spent five years calling for an immediate military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Then he became president. Over the past seven months Trump has become persuaded that a cut-and-run strategy would create a vacuum in the heart of Asia, and that he would be responsible for the consequences. So he did something presidential: Confronted with the facts, he changed his mind.

Breitbart News, back under the stewardship of former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, labeled Trump’s change of heart a “flip-flop,” and the label is accurate if unflattering. Rather than the withdrawal favored by Bannon and other anti-interventionists, in a televised speech Monday Trump announced a policy much like the one President Obama implemented in 2013. The United States will remain in Afghanistan, bolstered by NATO and other allies, with the expectation that Afghan forces will do most of the fighting.

Trump’s plans include some refinements: He hasn’t specified troop levels or timetables. Trump went further than his predecessors in putting Pakistan on notice that it will pay a price for providing a safe haven for the Taliban and other groups fighting the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Trump also invited India to play a role in the conflict, though India’s willingness to subordinate its growing commercial and diplomatic interests in Afghanistan to those of the United States is untested.

But in broad outline, Trump has decided to follow the reasoning that has kept the United States in Afghanistan since it invaded in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That reasoning holds that while the Afghan campaign is costly - 2,400 American lives and $1 trillion so far - the alternatives are worse. On one end of the scale is the Taliban takeover that would follow an abrupt U.S. withdrawal. At the other end is the massive commitment that would be required to defeat the Taliban militarily. The middle course promises neither immediate defeat nor victory, but avoids catastrophe.

Trump could take steps to improve his policy’s chances of success. One would be to enlist the cooperation of nations that are the United States’ adversaries in other arenas: Russia and Iran. Neither country wishes to have an anarchic exporter of terrorism, refugees and heroin in the region - in Iran’s case, on its border. Both are fighting the Islamic State in Syria, a group that is gaining a foothold in Afghanistan. Both have influence and experience in the country. Iran was a de facto ally of the United States in the early phase of the Afghan war, and their continuing interests could be aligned.

Trump should also leave open the possibility of reaching some sort of accommodation with the Taliban - perhaps a deal that leaves the central government in place, but recognizes a high degree of regional autonomy. The Taliban has shown itself to be a durable and resilient enemy, one that would not have lasted without extensive popular support. An enemy that can’t be wholly defeated might be partly co-opted.

Trump criticized Obama for setting targets for withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying they allowed the Taliban to play a waiting game. Trump’s get-out-now rhetoric has had the same effect. But now, two American presidents as different as Obama and Trump have settled upon essentially the same strategy. That in itself sends a clear message that the United States won’t depart under current circumstances. Such a demonstration of continuity in American policy should induce all parties to the Afghan war to seek an end to the long-running stalemate.

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The Oregonian/OregonLive, Aug. 22, on Oregon’s handling of solar eclipse

As the moon slipped across the sun Monday, many who had felt entirely lukewarm about the historical event admitted they were surprised by just how darn cool and awe-inspiring the total eclipse truly was.

Some cried, some felt odd sensations and some marveled at the shadows.

But no one was surprised by what happened as the sun returned. And that’s entirely thanks to the hard work by state and local officials over the past year to brace everyone - even visitors themselves - for such a massive, tourist-driven event.

Traffic was dreadful in places, highlighting the weaknesses of Oregon’s transportation system in a major earthquake. Still, the congestion didn’t come close to worst-case scenarios. The state’s most bone-dry high desert region was inundated, but visitors were respectful of the potential for wildfires. And while even Mother Nature threatened to crash the celestial party with cloud cover and smoke, the morning broke clear enough for all to catch the moment that the moon totally covered the sun.

Some complained the eclipse was “overhyped.” No, this was an effective informational campaign paired with on-the-ground operations that were perfectly appropriate to the scale of an attraction expected to draw as many as a million visitors.

Disagree? Consider how Oregon - Portland, in particular - has been brought to its knees in recent years by inches of forecasted snow.

Public and private planners wisely turned to other towns and regions that had experienced crushes of visitors. As The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Lynne Terry reported recently, hospitals stocked and staffed up. The main hospital system in Central Oregon canceled elective surgeries during the weeklong period in which the population of 280,000 was expected to double.

This was a particularly well choreographed preparation considering that the 60-mile path of totality sliced through some of Oregon’s bigger towns through the valley and on to some of the least populated counties of the state.

With concerns that cellphone networks might be maxed out, emergency managers activated emergency communications with satellite phones and had ham radio operators ready to go. The Oregon Department of Transportation wisely distributed emergency response trucks along highways expecting the worst congestion.

It mostly worked. As predicted, traffic inched along through late Monday night along stretches of Oregon 97 in Eastern Oregon and on Interstate 5 south of Salem. The backups make vividly clear how the two freeways - and others - will be stressed if they become major escape routes following a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Still, officials had warned travelers to bring enough food and water to last two days. And while traffic was at a standstill Monday morning, most areas cleared out by the afternoon with an added hour or two on typical travel times.

But it wasn’t just state and local officials who deserve praise. Visitors came prepared and they came patient.

As The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Elliot Njus wrote Tuesday, routes around Redmond and Madras were expected to remain slow through Wednesday. That’s a good thing. It means that eclipse watchers listened to officials and delayed their departures to help ease the mayhem - just as many staggered their arrivals last week.

Of course it would have been better if drivers had heeded police warnings about the danger of parking along freeways to catch the moment of totality. But no major crashes occurred and law enforcement saw fit to give scofflaws a celestial pass.

For a fleeting moment, all those watching the eclipse felt something. Whether mental or physical. Perhaps it was the quiet, or the shift in the wind or the drop in the weather. It had been something to look forward to - a break in the barrage of national events that are much more complicated and difficult to understand.

That moment was a gift that the many months of preparation helped make possible.

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East Oregonian, Aug. 22, on America having troops in Afghanistan long into the future

Everyone knows the mighty militaries that have fallen in Afghanistan: Alexander the Great, the British during their “sun never sets” era, the Soviets when they were gobbling up every other country in the vicinity to join the USSR.

None of those have warred in the country as long as the Americans, however, who have now been battling in Afghanistan for 16 years. More than 2,300 American soldiers have died in the fight. And the monetary cost is approaching $1 trillion - an estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies pegs it at $841 billion and climbing. It is our country’s longest war.

Donald Trump is the third president to oversee operations there. This was America’s War after 9/11. Then it was George W. Bush’s War, then Obama’s War and now it is Trump’s War.

President Trump made his Afghanistan policy the center of his first primetime address to the American people. Though the man campaigned against Bush’s ill-fated foreign policy decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Obama’s own mistakes in Libya and Afghanistan, Trump’s plan in the latter country is eerily similar to his predecessors. It’s the Obama plan really, with an additional 4,000 troops. Few on the ground expect that to make any difference.

So the takeaway from Trump’s speech is that this country will have troops in Afghanistan long into the future. Remember, America has troops not just in Iraq, but in Germany, Japan and The Philippines. It has for decades and has no plans to change the status quo.

Perhaps this perpetual overseas deployment is in America’s best interest, and perhaps it is in the world’s best interest, too. Perhaps it is just a modern form of colonialism. (And there’s no reason it can’t be both.)

Our worldwide police role is an expensive endeavor, though. It’s something Trump’s “America First” campaign targeted, though in his first major policy pronouncement has made little change. Afghanistan remains a quagmire.

At the same time, the U.S. does not currently employ an Afghanistan ambassador. John Bass was nominated by Trump in July but has yet to be confirmed. Quagmires on all sides.

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The Medford Mail Tribune, Aug. 22, on Neil Creek showing salmon projects work

While irrigators on the Columbia and Snake river system are pressuring the Trump administration to overturn salmon-protection measures, closer to home a small-scale project on a small stream is getting results.

Under an agreement between NOAA-Fisheries and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, stream restoration work has brought juvenile coho and chinook salmon back to Neil Creek, a tributary of Bear Creek near Ashland. The project, on a mile-long stretch of the creek that runs through a private ranch, is designed to create new and deeper pools to provide the cold water that fish need during summer months.

The work will keep the Talent Irrigation District and others from losing federal permits necessary to continue operating. The permits were at risk because irrigation districts must operate without harming wild coho, whose habitat is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

One year after the restoration work was completed, state fish biologists counted 169 juvenile coho and 79 wild fall chinook juveniles in a survey finished last week. Since 2002, previous surveys had found exactly one juvenile coho, and chinook juveniles were unheard of.

The Columbia-Snake river system is enormous, and battles over protecting fish runs there involve lawsuits seeking the removal of multiple dams. Irrigators who object to federal protections hope the Trump administration will agree to convene what is known as the “God squad,” a committee with the power to grant exemptions to environmental regulations.

The God squad has met only three times, the last a quarter century ago, and has not always ruled against protections. The last time it met, the committee granted an exemption to protections for the northern spotted owl, allowing some timber sales to proceed.

It’s unclear whether the God squad will be convened, or if it is, whether it will issue the ruling the irrigators want. But here in Southern Oregon, the Neil Creek project shows protection methods are working.

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Albany Democrat-Herald, Aug. 22, on black market being weak link in legalization

If the Trump administration truly is serious about enforcing federal marijuana laws, even in states like Oregon that have legalized pot, their best argument revolves around the amount of the weed that’s hitting the black market.

So Oregon officials have to be hoping that their increased efforts to track weed will pay off. Otherwise, this could be the Achilles’ heel for the state’s growing multibillion-dollar legal marijuana business.

If you’ll allow a bit of understatement here, it’s fair to say that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t a fan of marijuana and no advocate for legalization. But it’s still not clear how vigorously the administration plans to push back against the tide of states that have legalized recreational pot.

Sessions himself has offered mixed messages on this point: He has said he believes pot is “only slightly less awful” than heroin. But he also has said that he believes the so-called Cole memo, a document from the Obama administration that governs the relationship between the feds and states that have legalized marijuana, is “valid.”

That’s where black market marijuana could give Sessions a card to play: The memo, crafted in 2013 by deputy attorney general James Cole, essentially said that marijuana would remain illegal under federal law, but that the feds would tolerate legalization on the state level - as long as those states worked hard on eight enforcement priorities. Among those priorities was one asking states to control the black market.

Earlier this year, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, met with the state’s top marijuana regulators. Williams requested the meeting in the wake of a draft report from the Oregon State Police that concluded that Oregon remains a leading black market exporter of pot to other states.

An Associated Press story said the report used statistics from the legal industry and estimates of illicit grows to conclude that Oregon produces between 132 tons and 900 tons more marijuana than what state residents can conceivably consume. The report identified Oregon as an “epicenter of cannabis production.”

The report has drawn barbs from critics who say the numbers in it are overstated. But it also has drawn attention from Sessions himself, who made reference to it in a July letter he sent to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

It’s not inconceivable that the federal government could attempt to make Oregon its first big target in a fight against legalized pot. Over the long run, the fight almost certainly would be a losing effort. But in the short run, it could easily devastate the state’s growing pot industry and blow a multimillion-dollar hole in the state’s budget as tax collections from sales of legal pot diminish.

Oregon has some cards of its own to play: Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon’s legal market. So far, only recreational marijuana has been comprehensively tracked.

These tracking systems, which increasingly are in use in other states that have legalized marijuana, aren’t foolproof in that they rely on the honesty of the users. But if Oregon is aggressive about identifying and citing violators early and often, the message might get out that the state means business on this front.

That might be enough to convince the feds to keep their hands off of Oregon’s growing marijuana industry for the time being, instead of falling back on a heavy-handed and overly broad attack.

Such an attack from federal officials would almost certainly devastate Oregon’s fascinating experiment with legalization. It also could end up, ironically, giving an unintended boost to the very same black market that Sessions and other federal officials want to shut down.