Clifford D. May

Tracking freedom’s enemies

If I were to ask an intelligent person like you what happened in the 20th century, or the 19th or the 18th, you could probably sum up the most significant developments. But if I asked you what is happening in the 21st century, how would you reply? Published August 16, 2016

What does America owe Iran?

An unmarked cargo plane filled with $400 million in cash lands in Tehran. Four American hostages held by Iran's rulers are set free. These revelations have sparked two controversies. Published August 9, 2016

Moderate Democrats must curb socialism

Groucho Marx famously said he wouldn't join any club that would have him as a member. Bernie Sanders last week turned that on its head, saying he wouldn't remain a member of any party that wouldn't have him as its leader. Published August 2, 2016

The dark dilemma of modern globalism

"Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo." That line from Donald Trump's long and emphatic speech to the Republican National Convention last Thursday jumped out at me. I think I know what he meant: that he prioritizes America's national interests above those of the wider world. Published July 26, 2016

The jihadis in France, the Islamists in Turkey

Streets ran red with blood in both France and Turkey last week. A terrorist atrocity and an attempted coup are quite different events. But underlying both is this question: How are the most dynamic forces within the Islamic world shaping the 21st century? Published July 19, 2016

Obama’s Iran experiment

A hypothetical question: Suppose the Islamic State wanted to buy some American airplanes and promised not to use them to support terrorists. Would you be OK with that? I'm guessing not. Published July 12, 2016

The Battle of Bangladesh

During the past 10 months, there have been more than 30 terrorist attacks in Bangladesh. Published July 5, 2016

Brexit vote democracy in action

Whether you think the United Kingdom exiting the European Union is cause for alarm or celebration, you have to concede this: Britons engaged in an open, lively and mostly peaceful debate, they turned out in droves, they cast their votes freely and fairly and, by so doing, expressed their will and determined their future. That's called democracy. Is there a preferable alternative? Published June 28, 2016

Terrorism and economic warfare in Israel

Tel Aviv's Sarona Market bills itself as the "heartbeat of Israeli culinary art." Dozens of small restaurants and shops offer cheese, wine, bread, fish, olives, pasta, burgers -- pretty much anything you can imagine and quite a bit that you probably cannot. Published June 14, 2016

Little will come of France’s Palestinian-Israeli peace talks

The French government last week initiated a new "peace process." Ignoring the butchery underway in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, as well as the threat Iran now poses to the Middle East, their focus is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Published June 7, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: National security reforms for the next president

"National security" is a highfalutin phrase for a problem that can be stated quite simply: We have enemies. What do we do about them? Since this is a matter of life and death, it's worth asking: What national security policies can we expect the next commander in chief to implement? Published May 24, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Hezbollah, Iran mourn loss of Mustafa Badreddine, master terrorist

Five years ago, during the optimistically named Arab Spring, Syrians staged peaceful protests against the ruling dynasty that had long oppressed them. President Bashar Assad responded brutally: In May 2011, he sent tanks into the suburbs of Damascus, Deraa, Homs and other cities to crush his critics. Civil war followed. Published May 17, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: How Ben Rhodes helped Obama betray America

Among the most serious charges that President Obama and his supporters have leveled against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney: They "cherry-picked intelligence." The phrase suggests that, while in office, they sorted through the information provided by America's spy agencies, selecting the tidbits that supported their policies while discarding anything that might cast doubts on their conclusions. Published May 10, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Observations along America’s road to ruin

People think early European immigrants to America were seeking religious freedom. In fact, they sought escape from religious persecution. Not quite the same thing. Published May 3, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Obama wants Iran, Saudi Arabia to share neighborhood

Barack Obama last week visited Saudi Arabia, an unusual nation with which the United States has had a relationship that can be accurately characterized as both strategic and strange -- and one that is now severely strained. To understand how we got to this juncture requires at least a smattering of modern history. Published April 26, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Michael Hayden’s memoir

After a long and extraordinary career, Gen. Michael Hayden has written "Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror." Both a memoir and a primer on modern espionage, it also attempts to correct the historical record and maybe settle a few scores. Nothing wrong with that, if you ask me. Published April 19, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Can America change course?

As you watch the circus that is the 2016 presidential campaign, which candidate strikes you as having a coherent vision of national security for the post-Obama era? Who has told you what he (or she) will do about the rise of jihadi regimes and groups in the Middle East and well beyond? Published April 12, 2016

CLIFFORD D. MAY: Obama slow to act against terrorism

President Obama's critics charge that he's never developed a strategy to defeat terrorism, the weapon of choice for those waging what they call a global jihad. The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist whose ear Mr. Obama most likes to bend, says that's wrong -- that the president does have a strategy. "He is, after all, killing jihadists at a frenetic pace." Published April 5, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: Obama visit legitimizes Cuban dictatorship

''I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas." That was Barack Obama's "historic" announcement in Cuba last week. But was it true? What is the Castro regime if not a vestige of communism's 20th century struggle against the capitalist enemy — also known as the Free World? And, self-evidently, President Obama had come not to bury the Castros but to normalize relations with them. Published March 29, 2016

CLIFFORD MAY: When universities become day care centers

Back in 1993, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a New York Democrat, warned against "defining deviancy down." He was talking specifically about crime, about our getting used to it and not taking serious measures to fight it. But over the years since, is there any realm of American or European life where acceptance of ever-increasing deviancy has not become "the new normal"? Published March 22, 2016