America in Berlin

In the inimitable words of the Mets announcing legend Bob Murphy: Well, hi everyone.

We're testing a new format which would permit us to share a single idea or observation with nihal.com readers.  But don't worry: the nihal.com editorial team shudders at the thought that brevity must necessarily sacrifice quality or originality. 

Here's our first attempt.  Last October, I was in Berlin, as the picture below proves:

In the background is the Reichstag, which is the German parliament building.  Note that a visitor can go right up and touch the scars left by Soviet and German bullets during the Battle of Berlin.  

Now walk a few minutes east through the Brandenberg Gate, and you'll be face-to-face with the American Embassy. I wish I took a better picture, but there it is: those yellow-lit windows to the right of the Gate.  

But you'll be hard-pressed to get within a hundred meters of the Embassy, which is protected by a phalanx of gates and guards.  Security concerns (no doubt well-founded ones) have put America's diplomatic mission on the defensive, while the German parliament building is left relatively unprotected.

Luckily, common wisdom doesn't measure the success of American diplomacy by the accessibility of its embassies.  But perhaps it should.