Re: Slovakia must meet criteria for visa regime, Readers feedback, October 25-31, Vol 10, No 41
I am not able to avoid responding to a comment that American embassies ought to be open to everyone.
While the paranoia of the average US citizen is pretty silly, reality around US overseas facilities in these insane times justifies a bit of caution. It's not just Marine barracks that get blown up. Might I mention Istanbul, where the British Consul-General, among others, was killed? Or the embassy bombings in Africa...or the stars on the wall at Main State where our dead colleagues are memorialized? We live in a modern world that makes this kind of security mandatory. Open the embassies to free passage and you will see a wholesale slaughter of American personnel overseas. Here is an example of the new world order. In Berlin, Wilhelmstrasse is closed for the block just off Unter den Linden and barricaded with armed German security police because the British Embassy is on that block. Two blocks further down Unter den Linden, the entire street where the US Embassy is located is barricaded and guarded at four ends by German security police.
A block away is the Stalin wedding cake: the Russian Embassy. No barricade. No wall. One policeman with a pistol. Another block up is the French Embassy. Again, no wall, no barricades, and one policeman with a pistol. Brits and Americans are the world's favorite enemies. Bit of a turnaround in just a couple of decades. And about the embassy in Bratislava: It should be moved out of the center, and funding to do that is underway in DC. Then the charming little square won't have the offense of an American presence.
Don Merritt,
Berlin, Germany
