Do you feel safe here as an American?

was he on TT?

BTW did we ever get a reason as to why the TT do was cancelled?

feel unsafe anywhere america you should !

The only time I did not feel safe in Germany was when that Timmeh guy would look at me weird like at the arc. Of course that was after winking at the hot bartendress behind the bar...

Or when Pootle was in the room.

This reminds me of an amusing story I heard last weekend, while at a wedding in Winnipeg.

Some Canadians were travelling in Morocco and got to talking to two English-speaking young women with North American accents. They asked the girls where they were from, and the girls said Canada. The Canadians said, OK, yeah, we're from Canada too, eh. Where are you from in Canada?

The girls looked sheepishly at each other and admitted they were Americans.

thoughts of the next president usa - sick of war europe !

Quite honestly, I do not even think about it (terrorism) at all, not even when travelling.

ditto

what do you think about?

The press is at fault for not challenging the ridiculous govt. line that the US is under threat. Some sources are in bed with the administration but I don't understand why the rest of the (allegedly liberal) media is so supine.

Absolutely, without a doubt, I feel safe here. In fact, I feel safer here than living in America as the possibility of another terrorist attack is still looming in America and on another note violent crime is quite rampant. I live each day of my life to the fullest and whatever is going to happen to me is my destiny.

A prime example of the effect of the propaganda of the last six years. The US is not in danger of a terrorist attack.

You're not making any sense at all.

I was upset after hearing about that failed train bomb last year (the one that ended up in the lost and found at the Dortmund train station). It hit close to home because that's a train I often take. But in general, I don't worry about getting caught in a terrorist attack. I'm more likely to forget to look both ways before crossing the street and get hit by a bus.

hey foxglove...i understand ur apprehensions...thats how one feels when they r gonna live in a place where they havent lived before and a totally different one..! Dont worry...Germany aint that scary..its much much safer than US..only that people have their own space n dont like to be disturbed...especially in bavaria..! :-) U dont have to worry even a bit...if u have a family and if u r workin', then its even better for u because u wont get bored...! ;-) Not many speak gud english..so, be prepared...! ...btw, gud luck..chow..! :-)

By the way, I am not American, but keep in mind RAB and FFM airport are hardly normal locations. RAB is a military base, Munich has none of these, and FFM airport is, well, the biggest airport in Germany, Munich's is smaller.
So I would personally feel less safe in Heidelberg (where I lived for the past 5 years) than in Munich, just for the military presence all over town. But in the end, anything can happen anywhere, you are never completely safe, regardless of how well police works and how well you lock yourself into your apartment for the rest of your life.

Where do I start?

what to fear

Ridiculous. Apparently you've never spoken with a Londoner in your life. I can assure you many folks in London are plenty skittish about the real threat of terror. I know people who have sold their homes and moved to avoid taking the tube.

Simply asinine.

Us proppa Cockneys call 'em 'prats'. Good riddance to 'em I say. Bunch of poofs.

@ DanHessen

Break it down for us. What is the danger exactly?

Stiff upper lip notwithstanding, after 7/7 a lot of people were literally shitting their pants. Apologies for the reality-check.

Well sorry for another reality check mush, but my brother was down there on the bleedin' tube on 7/7 and he still takes it to and from work everyday AND it's still fucked.

Duh. People flying airplanes into buildings. People blowing up government buildings in Oklahoma. People attempting to blow up airports like LAX. You know, exactly the kinds of things that have been attempted or executed in the recent past. Do you seriously think the likes of Al-Q and their idealogical cohorts have simply given up? Are you daft?

Ridiculous yourself. I am a Londoner. You are talking bollocks. Are you CIA? I ask because I have just looked at your photo and you look as if you are hiding behind those aviators. Londoners are not "folks" by the way. Nobody avoided the tube this morning - it was packed. I was there. I was there when the power failed on the Waterloo and City line for 15 minutes and when we finally got out at Bank, there was thick smoke everywhere. Where were you? Can I get back to my wine now?

I think you live in a different universe, old boy. Didn't notice it. Was on the tube when 7/7 was going on, walked 15k to get out of the City in the evening to get home. Pissed with rain as I remember. Nobody panicked. NOBODY. Certainly no shit around. Where were you, old boy, on 7/7?

Probably shitting himself a thousand miles away.

@ DanHessen

And? They won't manage a spectacular in the US again, not for a very long time. A much smaller scale attack is very unlikely as well, and if one happens and a hundred people die in a bombing of a bus garage it'd be a tragedy, but insignificant. More people are killed in Iraq every week and their population is less than one tenth the size.

The US is not in significant danger.

These responses are reassuring, thank goodness our esteemed panel of security experts have decreed that this terrorism stuff is chickenshit.

Welcome into the fold Jules.

You do know that the blowing up of government buildings in Oklahoma and the airplanes flying into buildings are not from the same ...

oh, never mind

Oo look, here comes Auntie June to rattle a few cages and ask for your bottoms.

Pfff... What's interesting is that next time there actually is an attack, the "fold" that you refer to will be screaming hysterically at how obviously avoidable it should have been.
As I said, damn if you do, da,mn if you don't.

Bollocks will I. But seriously Jules, what is a few hundred dead? Or even a few thousand? The US did not collapse after 9/11, did it? So how is it in danger? The risk of being killed in a terrorist incident on US soil is minuscule.

I was at Hugendubel today and they had this book in the politics section. Did anyone here read this book? What are your thoughts? Do you think that the facts in this book are rubbish?

The US didn't collapse after 9/11? I never studied economics, but you sure as hell didn't.

I'm keenly aware of what people in London think because I've covered a UK client base for 15 years. I'm in London often and was there two weeks after 7/7. I flew into Lodon City the day of the liquid bomber scare. Speaking with dozens of London based clients every day, I got a really good feeling for how nervous people were. Like I said, I know a few people who moved house to avoid the tube. I know LOTS of people who rode their bikes to work for WEEKS after 7/7. So get off your freakin high-horses just because your brother Joe still rides the tube. Lest anyone think I'm anti-British, it is my 2nd favorite country on the planet.

Wheel, you just moved the goalposts. I have no patience for that sort of cheap, intellectual dishonesty.

Cheers and good night.

And that makes you a Londoner does it?

By the way, nobody is calling you anti-British. This anti-whatever name-calling is for the whelks who can't handle a good argie-bargie.

NO, I've never heard of Timothy McVeigh and I didn't read newspapers that year. Duh.

@ JW

The Weimar republic collapsed. The US didn't collapse post 9/11.

@ DanHessen

I haven't moved the goalposts, you got the wrong end of the stick.

I doubt anyone would mistake me for a Londoner. As far as I'm aware I never made the claim either. Careful readership 101.

And your opinion as a Londoner is fully representative of what 12M other people think?

This is such a silly remark. It prompted me to create an ID and post a reply. I was simply browsing this site for a UK friend who will be moving to Germany soon.

I have been living in London since 2004 and whilst people were nervous when boarding the tube on the day after the bombings, people still did. After 2 months nobody really talked about it anymore. If you live in London you have no other choice than taking the tube. Buses, cars, walking? Forget it - it is just not possible. The only thing that worries people is when the tube workers are on strike - like they were earlier this week. That really annoys people here. I find that Londoners are indeed a lot more relaxed about the terrorist threat than people elsewhere. We were evacuated several times at London Bridge station in the days after the bombings, with terror alerts and station closures almost daily - and people did not "shit their pants", they just tried to organise their lives as best as possible with all the train disruptions. If you want to make remarks like this, get your facts right.

There ain't 12 million Londoners in London 'cause most of 'em are bleedin' foreigners. Most Londoners left long ago 'cause they couldn't afford to live there no more. But I'll tell you this, I know a few people who were down there that day and they all said it was just the same as when the IRA were detonating things for 30 years. No panic. And they're all still using (and moaning about) the Tube.

I'm not saying that you are a security expert June, but if you were it would explain why the USA's intel is bollocksed, wouldn't it?

You are talking such drivel. How dare you sign off when you leave that assertion that there was panic in London and that people moved house to avoid the tube (how does moving house avoid the tube anyway). Bollocks. There was no panic. I WAS THERE. You arrived on your white charger 2 weeks later. There was certainly no panic among Londoners. I go back to the IRA bombs of the 70's and 80's. I was in a restaurant around the corner from Harrods when that bomb went off. Again, no panic. But London was like a village two weeks later when all the overpaid foreigners were brought home by the likes of Ford and GM. Pansys. How can you flit in and out over 15 years and claim to be as aware of what people in London really think. Are you talking some lardy-dah fund management outfits? You say its London based clients you talk to - Londoners or London based clients. There is a difference. Now, where is that Chianti. Good night Van Heussen.

We calls that 'Armageddon'.

@batson creek
Drop the Cockney we-survived-the-Blitz inspired horseshit. London isn't special, sorry. Life went on in London, just as it did everywhere else that's been hit my Muslim fundamentalists. From New York to Madrid to Istanbul to Bali (the list is actually a little longer than that, but I digress...)
What you are saying is pointless. Life must continue everywhere, however it's ludicrous to deny that people are not more careful, aware and possibly edgy over a possible terrorist attack, and certain preventative measures are certainly not an indication of paranoia.

1) I didn't say all people. I said some people. Some people that I know personally. If it makes you feel better, change "shitting their pants" to "perceiving danger and taking distinct measures to avoid it".

Wheel:

Claim 1: no threat of attack

Claim 2: No threat of "significant" attack that kills more than 100 people.

That's called moving the goalposts.

I have to say that I know a lot more Londoners who feared the Police pumping nine bullets into the back of their heads than more bombs.

The point, June, is that people are more scared of terrorist attack in the US than they are in Europe, despite not having had a successful attack for 6 years. Even people in the boondocks are scared.