 |
The ferocity of the reaction in the German media to the fortress-like new U.S. embassy in Berlin, which former U.S. President George Bush will inaugurate on July 4th, strikes me as a reflection of the strains in German-U.S. relations since 2003’s Iraq conflict.
It underlines just how long gone the days of the Cold War really are. Then, when Berlin was the front line in the Cold War, America was West Germany’s best friend and U.S. soldiers were welcome across the country.
Architectural critics in Germany have slammed the boxy building with narrow windows as being reminiscent of Baghdad’s Green Zone.
The embassy is a picture of a country traumatised by 9/11 and by the consequences of globalisation, of a nation with such heavy armour that it can no longer see the world,” wrote conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this year.
Other critics have been just as hostile, deriding it as a discount supermarket, a prison, a bunker and like Fort Knox.
Once upon a time, the United States was a nation of courage and confidence. Now, led by greedy and arrogant Oil Patch Boys, no one even remembers how our nation survived the burning of the White House and the Capitol by British invaders during the war of 1812. Americans must think the Pearl Harbor Memorial just grew out of the tidal waters of Honolulu.
Perhaps, there is a mote of subconscious guilt below the scum of neocon brains? Perhaps, they simply are the cowards I think they all are?
Whatever the case and cause, our Fearless Leaders rely nowadays on structures of state better suited to Stalin than Jefferson.
Eideard–just how many embassies need to be bombed before making them bomb resistant is just common sense?
I do note the Berlin Chancellory has lots of glass, more like an art museum than a fortress? But what is Germany to the Muslim world except a staging area against the USA?
Comes from being the worlds only superpower and having really inept foreign policies as in wars of choice without exit plans?
I say it has too many windows. It should just be a big square reinforced concrete block with tv cameras to view the world. That would show “we mean business!”
Hunker down me bucko’s!!
Willkommen zu unserem bunker.
#21 – bobbo – That would show “we mean business!”
Hmmm… if you say so…
I’m sure the rest of the world thinks that way… 
Fuggin’ relax. It’s just a building. Who cares if they made it pink with a bow on it?
People seem to be using any excuse to bash on the administration.
I’m against both the war and the administration but trying to bring up that argument in an article about an ugly building just makes you look like a lunatic.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany from 1980-83. While the older Germans were nearly always friendly, there was a growing number of younger people who HATED Reagan. Remember that Reagan deployed cruise missiles to Europe and 108 Pershing 2′s to Germany. They had good reason to hate our being there. To them OUR being there made THEM a target. It was still easy to get past that in a conversation by bringing up heavy metal in general or the Scorpions in particular. Nothing is better than rhyming “you” with “you.” “There’s no one like you…”
Looks better than most government buildings on this side of the pond. I’d say at this point no one is going to like what we build just because it is American.
#25
> To them OUR being there made THEM a target.
They *were* a target by the very nature of their geography and the fact that the opponent was the Soviet Union. Reagan simply stepped up the pressure. The fact that the Soviets simply took Poland and never gave it back should have scared the hell out of the Germans.
The US embassy in South Korea is even uglier. It has some the most prime real estate in Seoul and is next to some historic and beautiful buildings but yet stands out like a sore thumb. Plus all the Korean police guarding the outside leaves for a reminder that the war still goes on.
I don’t like this push of spending more money for architecture. SO the building is boring. That’s what I want government buildings to look like. Too many times, architects take this money and build monsters, which are then lauded as ‘art’.
My guess is the new World Trade Center will look worse than the old one.
I do think George Bush pretty much alienated us from the entire world! Its hard to believe one administration could do so much damage!
#29
>>Its hard to believe one administration
>>could do so much damage!
Yes, that’s the one thing that Dumbya has finally succeeded at after a lifetime of failure: Making the US one of the most derided laughingstocks in the world.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!
199 days to go until January 9. Can we survive?
The “laughing stock” part is a more recent phenomenon. Americans, or at least the corporations and military acting on their behalf have been known as dickheads for quite a long while.
What happens on January 9?
Now we’ve had an attack on the Turkish Embassy. You guys are looking like fools.