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Suggestions to the President

Sat, June 24, 2017 | 07:24

Opinion > Guest Column >

US joins Syrian civil war

President Donald Trump doesn’t know much about other nations or international affairs. Still, during the campaign he had at least one very sensible foreign policy belief: the U.S. should stay out of purposeless wars in the Middle East.

Guest Column | 2017-06-23 16:03

Fall of House of Lees in Singapore

How sad is the ongoing family quarrel in otherwise brilliant Singapore? On my first trip to Singapore, as a Los Angeles Times columnist, which featured my first interview with Lee Kuan Yew, then titled senior minister, I returned home feeling I had seen something special and had met someone special. This was in 1996. Remember: Back then the average American thought of the place as no more than a “canning and chewing gum” circus. How silly and uninformed that view was.

Guest Column | 2017-06-23 16:01

Egypt's risky Saudis deal

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who came to power in a military coup d'etat, appears to be digging himself deeper into a hole of unpopularity among the Egyptian people. He is desperate to find money to fix a deepening fiscal mess, brought about in part by his own policies.

Guest Column | 2017-06-23 16:00

Expectations of officials

National Assembly hearings to confirm cabinet positions have been grueling on some nominees, particularly on Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, and (at the time of writing still unconfirmed) Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-hwa, because of suspected ethical violations. Among the various infractions that these and other nominees are suspected of having committed, the one they hav...

Guest Column | 2017-06-22 16:51

Kohl - architect of German unity

UNITED NATIONS - Thirty years ago this week in 1987, President Ronald Reagan visiting Berlin, made his famous challenge, “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall.” Alongside the American President stood German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. A few years earlier I met Helmut Kohl campaigning in his native Rheinland. Kohl, a towering but slightly awkward provincial politician, was often described to Americans as an amicable Gerry Ford type-character, evoking our own president of a decade earlier. It was not totally a compliment. Yet through perseverance and fate, this man from a small Western German city b...

Guest Column | 2017-06-22 16:47

Megyn Kelly delivers shocker

Television news personality Megyn Kelly's much publicized interview program Sunday night on NBC was clearly a publicity stunt to maximize the network's ratings. Her interview subject, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, clearly had his own agenda to broaden his audience of badly misinformed Americans who choose to believe nonsense over facts.

Guest Column | 2017-06-22 16:46

Rule-based international order under challenge

The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), the world’s biggest and most influential forum to discuss various security issues was held from June 2 to 4 in Singapore. Five hundred people including ministerial level officials from 22 countries, 12 chiefs of defense forces, and security experts from 39 countries gathered and found several important indicators related to the current and futur...

Guest Column | 2017-06-21 17:01

Gun rights for whites only

The National Rifle Association is not normally a shrinking violet in the defense of licensed gun owners, but last Friday's acquittal of Jeronimo Yanez, the Minnesota police officer charged with second-degree manslaughter and dangerous discharge of a firearm in the death of Philando Castile, produced not even a tweet from the NRA. Given the considerable coverage given the shooting - the victim informed the officer that he had a permit and a firearm during a routine traffic stop, and the aftermath was even streamed live by Castile's girlfriend on Facebook - that may strike Second Amendment adv...

Guest Column | 2017-06-21 16:54

Puerto Rico statehood far off

Puerto Rico's latest vote on statehood was met with a communal shrug, with most citizens either not caring or well aware the non-binding vote meant little. Most likely, they realized that no matter the outcome, Puerto Rican statehood remains a long way off. There's virtually no chance a Republican Congress and president would welcome a debt-ridden, dysfunctional state into the union. To be considered for a star on the American flag, Puerto Rico must first shed its status as an economic disaster.

Guest Column | 2017-06-20 17:25

Message to Russia, Trump

With its 98-2 vote to expand sanctions against Russia, the U.S. Senate has effectively served notice on two great powers in Washington: Russia, which may have to face new costs for its meddling in the 2016 U.S. election; and President Donald Trump, who will have to contend with congressional input on U.S. policy toward Russia.

Guest Column | 2017-06-19 17:14

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Park's impeachment