High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news.
David Schussler Here we are a nation of escapists, having displaced the indigenous, having fucked up the old world as we (whether we knew it or not) looked for a new world to destroy. While escaping the harsh realities of personal responsibility for the lives we no longer wanted, we dragged a battery of philosophers […]
Whenever I try to give credit to Ronald Reagan for participating in the fall of the Soviet Union, I often hear that its fall was an inevitability, and it just so happened to occur on Reagan’s watch. I have to point out to them that Reagan was the first President to come along with an […]
They met in Warsaw, almost by accident; quickly fell in love, and were married. Â Klimek Mielczarek was raised in poverty and learned at an early age how to survive using his good looks, charm, and ready wit. Â Teresa Zbijewska was an intelligent and beautiful young woman born into an aristocratic family, and raised on a […]
TedLipien.com, Truckee, CA, February 08, 2011 — One would think that the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birthday could be a perfect public diplomacy theme for all U.S. embassies in Central and Eastern Europe — a great opportunity for embassy-sponsored events to strengthen ties with America among diverse nations that owe their current independence and freedom […]
En ce moment, il n’y a plus de pilote dans l’avion. [At the moment, there is no longer a pilot on the plane.] — A European comment on President Obama as a leader of the Free World. TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, USA, January 03, 2011 — Who is the leader of the Free World when democracy […]
Update: America.gov restored Ted Lipien’s comment. TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, December 27, 2010 — On the day the U.S. Senate voted to approve the new arms reduction treaty with Russia, I found an article on the State Depatment’s website, America.gov, which gave a long list of the START treaty’s benefits lauded by the Obama administration but […]
Obama to the Poles: Have some Patriot missiles that don’t work to protect you from Russia  Opinia.US Truckee, CA, December 6, 2010 — The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. has released and commented on a number of leaked U.S. cables dealing with Poland. There needs to be a much greater scrutiny of these cables by mainstream U.S. […]
Opinia.US Truckee, CA, December 8, 2010 — A secret cable from the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw released by WikiLeaks shows former American Ambassador Victor H Ashe being deeply disappointed and frustrated with the Obama Administration’s treatment of Poland. The leaked cable lists a number of public diplomacy missteps by the Obama White House, including the President’s decision not to accept the […]
Opinia.US Truckee, CA, December 5, 2010 — A newly disclosed secret cable to the State Department in Washington shows that American diplomats in Moscow sometimes fall for Russian media disinformation and pass it on without questioning while adding their own pro-Kremlin commentary. Most diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which have been released […]
by Ted Lipien Opinia.US Truckee, CA, November 29, 2010 — Leaked secret State Department cables may help to resolve the mystery as to why President Obama chose September 17, 2009 to make his announcement on canceling President Bush’s missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The announcement pleased the Kremlin, which had been […]
TedLipien.com, Truckee, CA, November 13, 2010 — Bruce Chapman of the Discovery Institute in Seattle has asked all the right questions about a recent Russian media report suggesting that Russian killers have been dispatched to the United States to execute a former Russian spy. He had supposedly betrayed the ring of Russian “illegals” recently caught […]
Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye after committing yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats plenty of reasons to be pulling their hair out in utter frustration over his […]
  Photo: Mayor Gregor Robertson On Friday, Vancouver Police were asked to conduct a criminal investigation into Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson; Vancouver City Manager Penny Ballem (also a Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee member); the City’s Security Co-ordinator at Carnegie Center, Skip Everall; and Director of Carnegie Center and the Olympics Homeground Festival, Ethel Whitty. These […]
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — An article in the U.S. semi-official military newspaper Stars and Stripes suggests that the Obama administration’s plan for placing a limited number of Patriot missiles in Poland has no military significance and is being implemented largely for diplomatic reasons to appease Warsaw
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — A member of the Russian parliament has criticized Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski for his comments during a visit this week to Washington, but the Polish foreign ministry has disputed the accuracy of Russian news reports quoting Sikorski’s statement. The point of dispute is whether Sikorski has publicly asked for U.S. troops […]
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Due to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to prolong her stay in the Middle East, her scheduled meeting in Washington with visiting Polish foreign minister RadosÅ‚aw Sikorski has been cancelled. The announcement of the cancellation was made Tuesday by the State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. Tomorrow, of course, she has a […]
TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — Bill Clinton might have asked what the “enhanced” definition of “to enhance” IS? The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is busy blaming a Polish translator for mistranslating U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein’s TV interview answer about Polish troops in Afghanistan, which caused a diplomatic uproar in Poland. In an interview broadcast last Saturday, […]
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. media has not yet picked up on the latest diplomatic controversy between Poland and the U.S. But the public disagreement between President Obama’s new ambassador in Warsaw Lee A. Feinstein and the Polish defense minister over plans to send additional Polish troops to Afghanistan is drawing media attention in Poland.
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Blinken, national security adviser to the vice president, said in a briefing with reporters before Biden left for Europe October 20, that leaders in Warsaw, Bucharest and Prague should think less of what the U.S. can do for them and more about what they can do with the United States.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner would not receive at the White House the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is on a visit this week to Washington. President Obama apparently wanted to avoid upsetting Chinese communist leaders before his official trip to China. Unwelcome at the White House […]
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Bloggers and Russian experts in the US have been trying to find out whether the Obama White House coordinated with the Kremlin the timing of the missile shield decision that deeply offended people in Poland and produced biting commentaries in the US. Speculations abound that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from […]
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Displaying unprecedented boldness for a US diplomatic mission, the US Embassy in Warsaw conceded on its official public website that Poles believe that the “insensitive timing” — as the Embassy put it — of the Obama administration announcement on canceling the US missile shield system in Central Europe “shows that Obama […]
Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam Wired While American and international media blames President Obama for choosing to announce his decision on the removal of the missile defense system from Poland and Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, surprisingly so far no […]
So President Obama is scrapping the Bush “Missile Defense program” that was planned to protect Europe from Iran. Yes, I know. There is some question if the missile defense was any good against the actual threat, and all it seemed to do is irritate Russia. And it’s not like the program would merely be scrapped: […]
President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. President Barack Obama bids farewell to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev backstage after the two spoke at the Parallel Business Summit at the […]
Andrzej was admitted to the University of Warsaw, but when school started last September, he was not there. Instead, he was in a hospital waiting for a life or death decision by someone he had never met. You see, he was suffering from an immune system disorder that had plagued him since childhood. In layman’s terms, he was susceptible to every disease and every virus that came his way. To add to his troubles, he had contracted hepatitis, and the doctors told him he wouldn’t live much longer without a new liver. That meant a transplant from someone who is deceased.
Last Friday my wife and I watched the Polish Armed Forces Day parade in downtown Warsaw. It was a festive occasion with people lined three deep along both sides of Ujazdowskie Avenue; cheering loudly and waving small flags as the troops passed smartly in review. I use “Armed Forces Day” as a generic term to place the event in the context of what we are used to seeing in other countries. Ask any Pole about August 15 and they will tell you that it is a holiday commemorating the Battle of Warsaw, or as they call it, “The Miracle on the Vistula.”
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