Comments Posted By Ebenezer
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A PREVIEW OF OBAMA'S TRIP TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE
In regards to the Dresden part of the article I would urge caution.
Rosenthals notion of an controversy is centred around the idea that the visit to Dresden was Obamas idea. He even suggests that the Visit to Buchenwald was Obamas main goal and Buchenwald merely an "Alibi".
Apart from the obvious problem that there seems to be no earthly benefit for Obama to choose Dresden while he has every (family) reason to visit Buchenwald, this allegation does not mesh with the information known in Germany.
As far as can be determined, Obama intended only to visit Buchenwald and Landstuhl . However Mrs. Merkel, who is up for re-election in September insisted on an photo op with the President who is immensely popular in Germany. It seems much more likely that Dresden was chosen as the nearest city of any importance (a mere 40 miles from Buchenwald). Additionally, the rebuilding of Dresden is seen as one of the few "pan-German" success stories of the reunification period making it even more desirable as a backdrop.
[quote]The Germans would like nothing better...[/quote]
This seems to be a rather far-fetched allegation. While the far right would (obviously) latch on to it, the qualitative difference of the two occurrences is blatantly obvious and a comparison between is patently ridiculous even to those who oppose to the Desden bombings on ethical grounds. Even if an apology would be forthcoming (extremely unlikely) this would in no way shape or form diminish German guilt or responsability.
As to Rosenthals articels, I would advise caution there too. While (as far as a cursory browsing could tell) pointing out important German deficiencies like the glacial pace of NS investigations, they seem to suffer from a serious outsiders perspective, often misunderstanding German contexts. They also contain some extremely bad translations from the German, resulting in some rather distorted takes on German matters and moods.
Comment Posted By Ebenezer On 3.06.2009 @ 11:37
