Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
It seemed like one of those news stories that would come and go quickly — but the media and the politicians aren’t letting it die. Two weeks ago, the city of New York agreed to let a private organization build a $100 million mosque and Islamic community center in Manhattan. This in itself is nothing unusual. People from 190 countries … >>
Here’s a little history quiz for you. Which war was the longest in American history? If you answered “Vietnam,” you’d have been right until about three weeks ago. US combat there officially lasted eight years and eight months. But this June, it was overtaken by Afghanistan, where fighting has gone on uninterrupted since October 2001. The arrival of this fact … >>
The year was 2004. The chance of America finding an easy way out of Afghanistan and Iraq was fading as fast as George W. Bush‘s popularity. The Democrats thought they could easily kick him out of office. So why didn’t they? Well, for one thing, the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, wasn’t as inspiring as he could have been. There were … >>
Some of my e-mail correspondents in the US forward me nutty chain letters from time to time. Beneath several layers of e-mail addresses is an anonymous rant that someone either made up or copied from a website somewhere without attribution. Topics range from Barack Obama’s secret Muslim origins and plans to ruin America, to how all government is unproductive and … >>
Barack Obama calls it “a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster”. The explosion on a BP drilling platform on April 20 has led to an outpouring of oil from the sea floor which threatens not only wildlife, but also the important fishing and tourism industries, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Visiting Louisiana on Sunday, Obama said that “the federal … >>
Three weeks ago, this column expressed the opinion that Barack Obama was wasting his time trying to get Republican support for his health-care reform bill. And, lo, in the historic vote held close to midnight on Sunday, not a single Republican voted for it. All Obama needed to do was concentrate on appeasing conservative Democrats — but even that was … >>
You’ve read it here first: Barack Obama is nuts. My diagnosis is based on the popular American saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.” In the past 13 months, Obama has sat down several times with the Republican opposition to try to get some agreement on matters of national importance. He’s visited Republican … >>
Well, the people have spoken. Barack Obama had wanted to wait another week to give his State of the Union speech, but they wouldn’t let him. It would have delayed the season premiere of Lost. So he gave it last night instead, while the reruns were still on. For the first half hour or so, I even thought Obama’s speech … >>
How lucky we are when our problems are trivial! Flying to Istanbul on Christmas Day, my only complaint was that Turkish Airlines had seated me next to a large, burly man instead of a lovely Czech supermodel. Had I instead been flying to Detroit that same day, I would have come close to being blown up. It was only a … >>
This time, all the TV networks carried the speech. That’s how important it was — the strategy so long in coming on how to win a war many consider unwinnable. Speaking at the prestigious West Point military academy, Barack Obama said that over the next six months, America would send another 30,000 troops to join the roughly 70,000 already in … >>