Clifford D. May
Washington Times, Dec. 26, 2023
“The Obama administration’s attempt at rapprochement notwithstanding, Mr. Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and sent insurgents into Donbas. No meaningful consequences ensued.”
The coming of the new year is an appropriate time for retrospection.
I’ve been thinking about December 2001. Like many Americans, I was traumatized by the horrific images of the Sept. 11 attacks.
And like many Americans, I wanted to do something useful in response.
I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make the cut for Delta Force. But, with help from former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and former Rep. Jack Kemp, I began setting up a research institute to study the regimes, organizations and ideologies driving and justifying terrorism, formulate policy options, and help educate elite and general audiences.
These subjects had previously inspired little interest in universities, think tanks, the media and the United Nations.
So, when the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, or FDD, opened its doors in January 2002, there was lots to do.
That said, the world was simpler back then because, aside from the jihadis, there appeared to be no significant threats to the national security of the U.S. and its allies.
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