Clifford D. May

Iran’s Hezbollah virus infects Lebanon while attacking the world

Terrorists, criminals, and their neo-imperialist patrons in Tehran have been bringing death and destruction to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza -- whomever and whatever they touch Published March 17, 2020

How the United States and our allies should deal with enemies

David Kilcullen devotes much of his book to exploring how the dragons (Moscow and Beijing) and the snakes (Tehran, Pyongyang and non-state jihadi groups) have learned from each other, and become more dangerous in the process. Published March 10, 2020

U.S. must demand that China release freedom fighter Jimmy Lai

Jimmy Lai was arrested last week. Conviction could mean five years in prison. Or more: "We have every reason to believe that the trial of traitors like Lai has only just begun," threatened an editorial in China's official Xinhua News Agency. Published March 3, 2020

The Trump plan for Afghanistan is an investment in America’s national security

The goal is to reach a "political settlement to end the war in Afghanistan, reduce United States and Allied Forces presence, and ensure that no terrorist group ever uses Afghan soil to threaten the United States or our allies." Published February 25, 2020

United Nations Human Rights Council’s blacklist delegitimizes Israel

Last week, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, published a blacklist of 112 companies operating in the West Bank, 94 of them Israeli, six American and 12 from other countries. Published February 18, 2020

President Trump finds bipartisan support for a pro-U.S. Venezuelan leader Juan Guaido

The day after the State of the Union, President Trump met with Juan Guaido to discuss how "to expedite a democratic transition in Venezuela that will end the ongoing crisis," according to a White House press statement. Published February 11, 2020

Two Palestinian dreams: Exterminate Israel and a real nation-state

Some Palestinians have long dreamed of creating, for the first time in history, their own nation-state. Others have long dreamed of exterminating Israel, the re-created nation-state of the Jewish people. The second dream has prevented realization of the first. Published February 4, 2020

Making sure foreign enemies fear the United States military

Americans are smart enough to figure out how to make fighting the United States militarily -- conventionally, asymmetrically or in other ways -- stupid. Published January 28, 2020

Iranian regime’s ‘gray-zone’ war tactics are the new norm

You heard it last week from smart people on both the left and right. President Trump's droning of Gen. Qassem Soleimani put America "on the brink of another war," wrote Martin Indyk, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Echoed Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "It looked like we were on the brink there!" Published January 21, 2020

Iran’s Ali Khamenei misjudges President Trump and loses his leading terrorist

At 80 years of age, Ali Khamenei is an old man in a hurry. The ruler of the Islamic Republic of Iran regards himself as the leader of a global revolution, one that began years before the advent of al Qaeda, that jihadi-come-lately. Published January 7, 2020

Nikki Haley, all-American neo-Trumpian

From 2017 to 2019, Nikki Haley served as United States ambassador to the United Nations. She was a breath of fresh air -- proud of American achievements, unashamed of American power. Published December 31, 2019

The war against Christians

Grinch that I am, in the days leading up to Christmas I immersed myself in "The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924." Published December 24, 2019

Anti-Semites suffer defeats in the U.K. and the U.S.

If you happen to be an anti-Semite, you've had a disappointing week. In Britain, the Labor Party suffered its worst defeat in decades. The election was a stunning rejection of Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader who has called members of Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends." Published December 17, 2019

America must stop helping China’s Communist regime grow richer and more oppressive

Is there a moral case for continuing to intertwine our economy with China's, for helping the regime prosper? Published December 10, 2019

‘Did you have a horrible Thanksgiving?’

Among the blessings for which I was grateful last week: I did not sit down for Thanksgiving dinner with Charles Blow. Published December 3, 2019

Troubles between Congress and religious freedom

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is a small government agency that has done good work in the past and may do good work in the future -- if it's not transformed into a politicized bureaucracy. Published November 26, 2019

Palestinian Islamic Jihad provokes Israel and finds itself a lonely combatant

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been supported and directed by the theocrats in Tehran who regard the annihilation of Israel as a goal that unites Islamists, whether Shia like themselves, or Sunni such as PIJ and Hamas. Published November 19, 2019

Clarence Thomas: An exceptional American who defied the odds

"Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words" is the story of one exceptional American, but it's also a story about America, Published November 12, 2019

Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar not concerned about world’s most oppressive empires

At a rally for Bernie Sanders in Minneapolis on Sunday, Rep. Ilhan Omar told a cheering crowd that she was excited to campaign for a presidential candidate who "will fight against Western imperialism and fight for a just world." Published November 5, 2019

The end of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but the Islamic State continues

The elimination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a battle won. But it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the end of the "endless war." Islamism, in all its fury and diversity, goes marching on. Published October 29, 2019