Drownout France

Serious Security

U.S. Embassy. 29 Juillet.

In Berlin, you can't even get within a two blocks of the U.S. Embassy. It's right in the heart of downtown, and they have railroad cars and barbed wire blocking all access ways.

But if you thought we were "all in this together" -- i.e. that the Europeans were even slightly worried about equivalent types of terrorism -- you would be mistaken. They are not. While all kinds of US buildings are cordoned off with concrete blockades and guards, things are different in Europe.

The old terrorist threats have anti-terrorism policies to defend against them. So there's this VigiPirate program in France, originally started to prevent attacks from Algerian terrorists. But government buildings are not in the condition that U.S. sites are in.

That is to say: people expect attacks against the U.S. not their half-hearted allies. And therefore, isn't it nice to live under the global America security guarantee without paying the price (either in tax dollars or terrorist incidents)?

Posted by amol at August 3, 2002 10:14 AM