In contrary to the US, Riots are not uncommon in Germany.
There exists a bunch of radical elements who hijack pretty much every public demonstration.
I don't really share the criticism of the (peaceful) protesters against the G8 summit, but the curtailing of civil liberties, the "Baltic wall" around Heiligendamm and the general behaviour of our internal security services angers me.
Keep in mind there were about 25000 peaceful protesters whose organisation cooperated with the police, while there were at most 2000 violent "protesters".
The Meck/Pomm police actually was quite smart in dealing with peaceful and violent protesters quite seperately.
What angered me were the curtailing of civil liberties and the security measures for Heiligendamm, most of which are according to US demands. According to various reports, the fence and the whole security scheme is basically there to satisfy the secret service.
Neither Putin nor Sarkozy nor Blair nor any other head of state demands such high security and there have been meetings of a similar number of EU head of states without such a backfall to GDR times.
I often wonder why there has been such high security for a US president in a foreign country (which is not exactly indian territory unless a US president visits it) while security in a country where pretty much everybody is armed (his own) the security measures are much more relaxed.
I suppose it is some kind of perverse power demonstration that the US is able to shut down all normal life in a country for a simple state visit.
Apparently the only country a US president could currently visit without any drastic change in Orwellian direction is Iraq, where everything would just stay the same.
I suppose the best way to deal with the diplomatic obligations of the US would be either to convert an aircraft carrier into a floating diplomatic base or do it like Saddam and use Doppelgängers for state visits. Not that anyone would notice the difference anyway...
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