Clifford D. May

Iran elections still unfair and not free

News must be new but it needn't be surprising. The decidedly unsurprising news out of Iran last week: There was an election (of sorts) and the winner was Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent president.

May 23, 2017

Border security and immigration are simple

The nation-state is a relatively new idea -- scholars generally trace it back to the 17th century. It has its flaws, but has anyone come up with a better approach to world order? A nation-state enjoys sovereignty over its territory. Territories are separated by borders. Securing those borders may require barriers and controlled points of entry.

May 16, 2017

Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood manage to fool many people

"Hamas Drops Call for Israel's Destruction," headlined The Wall Street Journal last week. The New York Times told its readers: "Hamas Moderates Talk on Israel." And the United Kingdom's The Guardian concluded that Hamas had produced a document likely to "ease peace process."

May 9, 2017

Religious freedom attacked on all sides

"I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom." So said President George W. Bush in 2004. Leave for another day the debate over whether such a belief is more hopeful than realistic. What we do know: Tyrants and terrorists around the world are persecuting, torturing and slaughtering those whose hearts do desire freedom -- even the most basic.

May 2, 2017

Defense contractor Iran deals should be stopped

Sometimes international law is ambiguous. Sometimes not. When it comes to murdering civilians and using chemical weapons to get the job done, there are no gray areas, no fuzzy lines, no mitigating circumstances.

April 25, 2017

Turkey’s democratic experiment fails

On the grounds of the Turkish Embassy facing Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, D.C. is a statue of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, father of the Republic of Turkey, the nation-state he built from the rubble of the defeated Ottoman Empire and Islamic caliphate.

April 18, 2017

Donald Trump Syria actions were correct course

If you're still unsure about whether President Trump did the right thing when he launched 59 cruise missiles at Syria's Shayrat air base last week, consider the alternative.

April 11, 2017

Islamic extremism results in less freedom of speech

Whatever happened to Charlie Hebdo? For years, the French satirical magazine threw spit balls at polite society. Its writers and cartoonists particularly delighted in ridiculing religions and pieties. Some people found that amusing and thought-provoking. Others were appalled and offended. Such is life in a free country.

April 4, 2017

London terror attacks must be understood

"The Kafir's Blood Is Halal For You, So Shed it." That's just one of the catchier headlines in a recent issue of Rumiyah, a slick online magazine published by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

March 28, 2017

Donald Trump’s North Korea policy changing

America can do anything but America can't do everything, at least not within a four-year time frame. That suggests that the American president -- any American president -- needs to prioritize.

March 21, 2017

Pakistan a source of Islamic terror

Pakistan was meant to be a model, an example for other nations to emulate. It was founded after World War II, as the sun was setting on the British Empire and India was preparing for independence. India's Muslims, though glad to see the end of the Raj, were apprehensive about becoming a minority in a Hindu-majority land.

March 14, 2017

Israel-Palestine peace process cannot be rushed

This palm-fringed oasis in the Jordan Valley has been continuously inhabited for 10,000 years. That justifies it billing itself as the "oldest city in the world."

March 7, 2017

Left makes America apologize

Intellectuals of the left and those influenced by them judge the United States and certain European nations as uniquely guilty of imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia -- the list goes on.

February 28, 2017

Saudi Arabia attempts to be a legitimate nation

Saudi Arabia is changing. When government officials here tell you that, you take it with an oversized grain of salt. But when Saudi human rights activists say the same, you pay attention.

February 21, 2017

Border security necessary to head off disputes

Al Qaeda does not value diversity and it's not an equal opportunity employer. The same can be said of the Islamic State. And when the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran want to commit an act of terrorism -- the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, to take just one example -- they are likely to give the assignment to members of Hezbollah, a radical Islamic group of the Shia persuasion. They are highly unlikely to recruit Unitarians, Mormons or Baha'i.

February 7, 2017

Putting a price tag on the United Nations

This may come as a shock: It's possible, not likely but possible, that a committee of officials from the Defense, State and Justice Departments, as well as the National Security Council, will conduct a review of the disproportionate funding the United States provides to the United Nations and, hold onto your hats, come to the conclusion that American taxpayers should spend less on an organization that is inefficient, corrupt and inimical to American interests.

January 31, 2017

Ending Islamic terrorism will require a long war

In an inaugural address that was more purposeful than poetic, President Trump last Friday vowed to "unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the Earth." I hope we can agree, across party and ideological lines, that those are worthwhile objectives.

January 24, 2017

Defining violent extremism down

Death, where is thy sting? For Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, it certainly didn't come from the mainstream media.

January 17, 2017

Cyberwarfare a serious concern

Russia's hacking of the Democratic National Committee was mischievous. Did it change the outcome of the 2016 elections? No evidence suggests that and the intelligence community isn't claiming that.

January 10, 2017

Trump’s first 100 days

It's apparent that Donald Trump was -- to employ a neologism coined by President George W. Bush 16 years ago -- misunderestimated. But those who gave odds that he couldn't transform from a successful businessman into a successful politician are now betting he can't transform from a successful politician into a successful statesman.

January 3, 2017