US Opinion and Commentary

“VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussion and opinion on these policies.” — VOA Charter

Showing Archived Posts

Orlando: The LGBT Debate

Posted June 20th, 2016 at 2:29 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Omar Mateen said he “did the shootings” in Orlando during a 911 phone call just after the initial gunfire took place.
Mateen identified himself as an Islamic soldier and demanded the U.S. “stop bombing Syria and Iraq” according to partial transcripts of three calls Mateen placed to the emergency hotline.
While experts and pundits parse the transcripts and argue over the need to release them in their entirety to determine whether or not Mateen was radicalized on his own or directed by Islamic State or other group, there is strong evidence that homosexuals were Mateen’s target.
For America’s LGBT community, it’s not the first, nor will it be the last time.

Diplomatic Revolt on Syria Policy

Posted June 17th, 2016 at 12:54 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

51 U.S. diplomatic officials took the advantage of a a legally protected channel to express their dissent with Obama administration policy in Syria, and called for the use of targeted military strikes against the Syrian government.
The cable came from the State Department’s Dissent Channel, designed to give the Secretary of State and others an opportunity to hear alternative or dissenting perspectives from official U.S. policy.
This comes on the heels of criticism from Sen. John McCain in which he blamed President Obama and his policies regarding Iraq and Syria for the mass shooting in Orlando last Saturday.
Obama’s policies regarding Syria has been well chronicled (see “The Obama Doctrine” by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg) and subjected to dissection by some of the world’s foremost experts on foreign policy.

Orlando: The Gun Debate

Posted June 16th, 2016 at 12:39 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

There is movement, a pulse, in Congress after all.
After the slaughter of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub, there were the usual expressions of sorrow, moments of silence and verbal posturing. But instead of the usual inaction by Congress on gun laws, Senate Democrats took action by grinding the deliberative body to a noticeable stop.
The 15-hour filibuster by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy forced Senate Republicans to agree to votes on Democratic-backed gun control measures: expanding background checks and preventing suspected terrorists from buying guns. It will put senators on the record about gun laws before the November election.
Democrats efforts got a boost from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Donald Trump tweeted he would meet with the politically powerful National Rifle Association about banning gun sales to those on the terrorist watch list or “no fly” list.
No matter which way the votes go, the debate over guns in America has both sides locked and loaded.

To Say or Not to Say: ‘Radical Islam’

Posted June 14th, 2016 at 5:34 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

What’s in a word, or two?
President Obama’s refusal to use the term “radical Islam” is back in the American political discussion, raised by Donald Trump in the aftermath of Saturday’s massacre in Orlando.
Trump demanded Obama’s resignation because he refuses to use the term “radical Islam” when referring to acts of terrorism.
Obama responded tersely Tuesday, saying “there’s no magic to the phrase radical Islam. It’s a political talking point; it’s not a strategy.”
It’s a debate that’s raged for years: “can you defeat an enemy if you don’t know what to call it?” versus “can we expect help from Muslims if we paint the entire religion with the same brush?”

Trump, the Judge and the Campaign

Posted June 9th, 2016 at 12:32 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

By the time House Speaker Paul Ryan finally backed Donald Trump on June 2, the polls showed Trump and Hillary Clinton in a virtual tie. Clinton was still fending off a Democratic primary challenge from Bernie Sanders while Trump was slowly uniting a fractured Republican Party once his final challengers dropped out in early May.
How things changed in just one week.
Trump has been pilloried by opponents and supporters for what has been called racist comments about a judge presiding over a lawsuit involving Trump University. Trump has said the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, could not be impartial because of “his Mexican heritage.”
Five days after his endorsement, Ryan had to distance himself from Trump’s comments, saying it is the “textbook definition of racist.” But Ryan has not withdrawn his endorsement of Trump.
Trump has tried to defuse the controversy, saying the comments were “misconstrued”, but several Republicans are calling on him to apologize and retract his comments. Democrats will continue their attacks on Trump as a racist.
Will Trump’s head start on unifying his party wither under the weight of the candidate’s own words?

The Great Race

Posted June 8th, 2016 at 3:28 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

She made it.
Finally.
Hillary Clinton has gone from First Lady to U.S. Senator to Secretary of State to, now, Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
It sets up a historic presidential election in November: the first woman nominated by a major political party versus a businessman, the first nominee since 1952 who has not held public office.
Both Clinton and Donald Trump have work to do to unite their respective parties behind their candidacies. Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, has yet to concede, although he has sounded more conciliatory.
Trump has more work to do, thanks to his comments about a federal judge of Mexican descent who is presiding over a lawsuit involving Trump University — comments that have been called racist by foes and supporters alike. One Republican senator seeking re-election retracted his endorsement of Trump. Pressure will build for others to do the same.
Election Day is five months away. By then, history may take a back seat to histrionics.

The Most Famous Person Ever

Posted June 6th, 2016 at 5:23 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

It’s hard to believe that in this day of global connectivity that, arguably, the world’s most famous person ever achieved fame without the help of the Internet, social media or cable/satellite television.
Muhammad Ali was a force of nature and change agent. He was handsome (or, as he put it, pretty,) tall and chiseled. Eyes were drawn to him. And he commanded the spotlight as no athlete had ever done before. Although he basked in that spotlight, he also used it to expose racial inequities he saw in the United States. When he converted to Islam, he became the only Muslim many Americans knew. Ali said he would not go to war, and lost his prime money-making years by for his principled stand. Only Ali could be polarizing and unifying at the same time. He became the champion of the underdog.
In October 1974, few Americans could find Zaire on a map. But after Ali knocked out George Foreman to win the heavyweight title, the “Rumble in the Jungle” cemented Ali’s status as a global icon.
So much has been written about Ali since his death late Friday. But the thread that runs throughout is how he used his influence as a fighter for peace and equality.

Clinton: Trump Foreign Policy Ideas “Dangerously Incoherent”

Posted June 3rd, 2016 at 4:58 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy speech was more of an evisceration of Donald Trump, using the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s own words to make the case that he is “temperamentally unfit” to be president.
Trump countered Thursday evening, telling an audience “My temperament is so much tougher, so much better than hers.”
Standing in front of 15 American flags, Clinton used her 35-minute speech to tout her experience and successes as Secretary of State while reminding the audience of Trump opinions and statements. She made a point of saying “America is an exceptional country” while criticizing Trump for his “Make America Great Again” since, in her words, “America is great, just like we’ve always been.”
Clinton still has unfinished business in her quest for the Democratic nomination. She and Bernie Sanders will face off in six primaries next Tuesday that should deliver the requisite number of delegates for Clinton, barring overwhelming victories for Sanders.
If Thursday’s speech is any indication, a Clinton-Trump presidential match-up will be no holds barred.

No Shangri-La in the South China Sea

Posted June 2nd, 2016 at 5:10 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Shangri-La is defined as an imaginary paradise, exotic utopia, a faraway haven of tranquility.
Utopia and tranquility are perhaps the furthest thing from the minds of Asia-Pacific defense ministers when they get together this weekend in Singapore for the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue security summit.
Topping their agenda: what to do about China’s claim to 3.5 million square kilometers of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim parts of that area. China is building artificial islands it says are for navigation, scientific and emergency services, with “limited defense facilities,” according to China’s Ambassador to the U.S. The issue is expected to be adjudicated soon by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
No matter how the court rules, the United States and other Pacific Rim nations will have to deal with China’s likely refusal to accept a ruling not in its favor and the security issues that will follow.

What Does Bernie Want?

Posted May 31st, 2016 at 2:57 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

It’s a long shot for Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. But he is still campaigning hard, vowing to take his candidacy to the convention in Philadelphia in July.
Sanders trails Hillary Clinton by 268 pledged delegates going into the final nine contests of the primary election season. Neither are likely to win the nomination with pledged delegates only.
Both candidates will need to make their case to the 712 so-called “superdelegates” that they are the better candidate to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Both need to have convincing victories in the final primaries, especially California.
With 475 pledged delegates at stake, California has the biggest delegate haul. Sanders has been campaigning in the state for more than a week. Clinton has changed her schedule and will add two more days of California campaigning before the June 7 primary. She also got a boost with an endorsement from California governor Jerry Brown.
Donald Trump is already on the attack against Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats worry Sanders is dividing the party when the delegate math doesn’t add up.

Obama’s Hiroshima Embrace

Posted May 27th, 2016 at 4:24 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

It was a solemn walk down the promenade for President Barack Obama with Japan’s Prime Minister. With every step, Hiroshima’s Atomic Dome came into focus, the Pond of Peace shimmering brightly thanks to the Eternal Flame licking the sky.
After delicately placing a wreath at the foot of the Memorial Cenotaph, Obama moved to the podium. He took a few extra seconds to begin, to honor the moment: the first President of the United States to visit the city that a predecessor bombed with the deadliest weapon known to man.
Obama acknowledged the magnitude of that decision without apology. He appealed to all nuclear nations, including the United States, “to have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them.”
He mourned the innocent from all of the world’s wars, saying “we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.”
Hindsight, they say, is 20-20. And the farther away we get from a historical event, the more clarity we seem to gain.

Hillary Clinton’s Emails

Posted May 26th, 2016 at 5:05 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Hillary Clinton is the target of criticism after Wednesday’s release of an internal report that says she failed to follow rules about the handling if her email while Secretary of State.
The report by the Office of the Inspector General for the State Department cited Clinton’s use of a private email account to conduct State Department addresses as inappropriate for record keeping; she failed to provide emails for the first few months of her tenure; and her use of a private server for her email was neither approved nor secure.
Clinton has previously acknowledged that using a private email server was a mistake and she would do it differently if she had to do it again. In an interview with Univision’s Los Angeles affiliate, she said “nothing has changed” regarding the email story and she used personal email “just like previous secretaries of state.”
The report has given Clinton critics new ammunition to question her judgment and veracity. And there still is an FBI investigation of whether she mishandled classified information because of the email setup.
And the issues of character and national security are at the center of this presidential election

Another Taliban Leader Killed. What Next?

Posted May 25th, 2016 at 5:41 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

President Barack Obama called the killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour “an important milestone” in U.S. efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. Obama’s statement Monday went on to explain that Mansour rejected peace talks with Afghanistan and was plotting attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.
How the drone strike that killed Mansour was carried out raises as many questions as the act itself. It took place on Pakistan soil, in Baluchistan rather than along the frontier with Afghanistan. It’s still murky whether Pakistan intelligence or military officials helped the U.S. or had advance warning. There’s even an Iran element to the intrigue.
The Taliban has named a successor, someone said to hold the same views as his predecessor about negotiations with the Afghan government. As the U.S. decides how (and whether) to draw down forces in Afghanistan, will the short term success bring long term peace?

A Third Choice?

Posted May 24th, 2016 at 6:05 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

In a presidential race where the likely nominees of both major political parties have major disapproval ratings, is there room for a third choice?
New polling says maybe.
An NBC-Wall Street Journal survey this week shows 47 percent of registered voters would consider a third party candidate if the Republican and Democratic choices were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
This weekend, the Libertarian Party will hold its convention to nominate a candidate. Front-runner Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, is polling at 10 percent in some recent surveys that include his name with Trump and Clinton.
While Americans have not elected a third party president, there have been some strong attempts: George Wallace won almost 14 percent in 1968. Ross Perot got 19 percent in 1992 and eight percent in 1996. Ralph Nader in 2000 got more than two percent of the vote, but that was enough to keep Al Gore from winning Florida, giving George W. Bush the presidency.
With the election still about six months away, talk of a viable third party candidate is still remarkably strong. But is there action behind the talk?

The New Deal With Vietnam

Posted May 23rd, 2016 at 6:57 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Adorned by pastel colored flowers and framed by a red curtain, the golden statue of Ho Chi Mihn seemed to dwarf everything else in the room, including the high level meeting between Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary and the President of the United States.
With that as a backdrop, Barack Obama came to Vietnam to “remove a lingering vestige of the Cold War:” the embargo on U.S. arms sales to Vietnam.
Obama made the point that the lifting of the arms embargo underscores the U.S. commitment to “strong defense ties with Vietnam and this region for the long term…united in our support for a regional order in the South China Sea.”
Without naming China specifically, Obama gave fair warning to Beijing that the U.S. will continue to “fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows and support the right of all countries to do the same.”
Critics — including fellow Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California — say by lifting the arms embargo, Obama gave away a negotiation lever to move Vietnam to respect human rights. Obama said each transaction will be scrutinized on its own merits and the issue of human rights will continue to be raised.
Everything the U.S. does with Vietnam will be seen through the prism of a long war lost. This trip to Hanoi— and later this week to Hiroshima — reminds us that there are lots of blips along the long arc of time.