American Patriotism

Anne Applebaum recently posted an article on the surge of American patriotism after the capturing of Osama bin Laden. She titles this post Bin Laden killed: For a day or two, we’ll feel like the United States of America. She compares this surge of patriotism with other events that occurred such as Britain's royal wedding and for Poland, the beautification of a pope. She purposely compares the death of bin Laden to theses events to make a strong point on America's waining patriotism. In her opinion the war, the financial crisis and the recession "chipped away" our post-September 11 patriotism and since then we have dedicated ourselves to fight amongst each other. We have even gotten to the point of questioning the citizenship of our own president. She writes in this piece:

In the wake of this operation, they’ll have to think twice. After all, George W Bush – a cowboy-boot wearing, slang-talking, wood-chopping American – called for the US to haul in bin Laden, “dead or alive”. But Barack Obama – whose middle name is “Hussein”, whose surname rhymes with “Osama”, and who definitely does not come from Texas – is the one who actually did it. 

One of the things I like about Anne Applebaum is the style of her writing. For example, in this post she uses humor to lighten the tone of the piece. Her post is somewhat long but she keeps the reader interested by inserting comments such as the example showcased above.