what they're saying…

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

Jan. 23 The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, on draining the military:

The "wave of steel" that rolled through the Iraqi desert is corroding in the swamp of occupation and insurgency, and America's citizen-soldiers are paying a high price for that.

With reserves now making up 40 percent of American Army forces in Iraq and Kuwait -- and heading toward 50 percent --the Pentagon's Army Reserve chief is right to warn that this force could soon be broken.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld owes the country and its service men and women an explanation for that disproportionate commitment of Reserve forces, instead of better redeployment of the nation's sizable active-duty military force.

While today's reserves are better trained and equipped than their predecessors, Rumsfeld's refusal to admit a need for more active-duty deployments is placing a huge burden on the nation's part-time soldiers.

... The demands being made on reservists already are hurting recruitment and retention, making it more difficult for these units to meet their mandated missions. Worse, the inability to retain soldiers could lead to less experienced, less capable units being sent in harm's way.

There simply is no excuse for the fact that reservists, despite being as well trained as any in this country's history, make up nearly half the Army in the Middle East. ...America's combination of volunteer regular forces and skilled reserves has been a good one, but this administration's miscalculations in Iraq have now put it at risk.

Jan. 25 The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla., on the Supreme Court and the Terri

Schiavo case:

Gov. Bush dangerously involved the state in the dispute over Terri Schiavo's life. That dispute isn't over, but thanks to the Supreme Court, the state is out of it.

On Monday, the justices declined to hear the governor's appeal of last September's unanimous Florida Supreme Court ruling that struck down "Terri's Law." ... Facing pressure from groups opposed to abortion and physician-assisted suicide, legislators wrote "Terri's Law" strictly for Ms. Schiavo, and the governor signed it. In so doing, the legislative and executive branches unconstitutionally tried to block an order by the judicial branch that they didn't like.

... Ms. Schiavo's case got into the courts because she, like many Floridians, did not have a living will.

If the Legislature wishes to change the state's death-and-dying laws to address such cases, the Legislature can do so. But that will be a different debate.

... There is almost certainly no satisfying outcome to the tragedy that has become the Terri Schiavo case, but because of the state Supreme Court and now the U.S. Supreme Court, it at least may be an isolated case.

Jan. 19 The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, on Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr.:

The conviction and 10-year sentence for U.S. Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., ringleader of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, should make clear that the United States has not abandoned common decency in the effort to eradicate terrorism.

Graner's sentence also reduces his rank to private and orders him dishonorably discharged from the military after he completes his sentence.

He was found guilty of beating prisoners, ordering them stripped naked and stacked into pyramids, forcing them into simulated sex acts and photographing them.

The harsh punishment is suitable for a soldier who still has demonstrated little understanding that his actions disgraced the Army and the nation. ...

Jan. 21 Chicago Tribune, on Bush's inaugural speech:

At his inaugural on Thursday, President Bush spoke to a nation where political divisions run deep, a nation at war, a nation where many of its citizens sharply question the wisdom of his leadership. The president acknowledged that division, but he also delivered a stirring reminder that there are values -- democracy, liberty, freedom and opportunity -- that unite this nation.

Those are not mere words. They are words that dictate actions, words that carry consequences, words that can bring change -- and pain. "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," Bush said.

The speech was notable for what Bush did not say. He did not mention Iraq. He said nothing of Iran, North Korea or other nations that threaten the world with their nuclear ambitions. He didn't have to.

For as surely as the Cold War was a contest between two ideologies -- capitalism and communism -- so too is the current war on terror a battle of beliefs.

In this war, America fights an enemy that cherishes fear over liberty, that fights fiercely to maintain the ability to repress women and minorities, that slaughters innocents in a campaign to deny citizens the right to vote freely. ...

... Inaugural speeches sometimes rise to history. Here is a prayer that Bush's words on Thursday live beyond the moment, and that the next four years are defined not by divisions, but by the values that all Americans share.

-- Associated Press