Aug 21, 2015 4 min read

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

The symbolic hoisting of the Stars and Stripes by U.S. Marines – the same men who lowered the flag more than five decades ago – over the newly proclaimed U.S. Embassy in Havana will signal the start of a new era in U.S.-Cuba relations that holds the promise of a better future for the Cuban people.

When President Obama announced Dec. 17 that the two countries had embarked on a path to restore the full diplomatic relations that were broken more than a half-century ago, we labeled it a “roll of the dice.” And so it remains – a work in progress that has been painfully slow on those issues that mean the most.

To date, dictator Raúl Castro has shown no sign of relenting on the human-rights front. According to Cuba’s Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, there have been more than 3,000 political detentions since the thaw. There will be more, no doubt, because Cuba’s people feel emboldened to challenge a regime that dares not loosen the restrictions of a police state lest it all come tumbling down suddenly.

But the new relationship will give American diplomats greater leeway to reach out to dissidents. Instead of asking permission to travel around the island, diplomats simply have to notify the government of their travel plans. Not ideal, but then Cuba is not a free country. That’s the whole point of the new policy, to achieve by engagement – soft power, if you will – what hard power could not achieve during the Cold War and beyond.

Although VJ Day didn’t happen until Sept. 2, 1945, it was announced to the world on Aug. 15, 1945 that Japan had surrendered in its conflict against the United States and other nations in World War II. Like the war in Europe, it had been costly. According to the Pacific War Online Encyclopedia, the war in the Pacific cost 70 million lives, 22 million of those from the military. Of the military deaths, 111,606 were U.S. forces with 253,000 wounded. Japan lost 1.7 million from its military. It’s estimated that China lost 4 million military personnel and 18 million civilians. Is it any wonder China continues to have difficult relations with Japan?

The days since World War II have been astounding. The United States has continued to be the world’s leader in almost every category of measurement, and Japan has come back from devastation with help from its conqueror to become the world’s third largest economy. The country took on a pacifistic rather than militaristic attitude that has served it well over the past 70 years. With an ever-aggressive China, that’s becoming problematic, and the U.S. has been urging Japan to expand its military.

Last month, according to The New York Times, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s proposal passed the lower house of Parliament that would allow, for the first time since World War II, the Japanese military to send its troops on combat missions overseas. That proposal still must be approved by the upper chamber where it’s also expected to pass.

Even with that approval in hand, some Japanese are against expanding a military role. Many are still haunted by memories of what happened 70 years ago when the nation’s military got too full of itself.

The work of policing in America is under scrutiny as never before, and that’s a good thing. A civil society depends on having a police force that people trust and respect. When that bond frays, everyone is less safe.

Police work, on its worst days, is brutal and ugly. Police officers face challenges most people never do: hostile, violent people engaging in vile behavior. They are expected to manage out-of-control people and defuse situations without harming or offending anyone. Not surprisingly, they don’t always succeed.

Law-enforcement officials can’t just assume their officers operate free of bias and follow proper procedures; they need strong policies, training and documentation to be certain of it. And they need to make that information clear to the public, so it can be certain, too.