Ever since his Cold War speech at the Munich security conference Russian President Putin is teaching us lessons in public relations. Isn`t that weird? Putin has started rearming quite some time ago, but nobody in Germany complained. Only when it became known that the Americans were planning to install a defense missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Germans started worrying about a new arms race. So the roles are clearly distributed: Bad American war-mongers on the one side, “The Prince of Peace” Putin on the other side.
What went wrong? Why did nobody explain the American position to the Germans in Germany in German? I think Robert Gates held a great speech in Munich. But that was in English and the German media did not report that much on it. What would have been needed is someone explaining the American point of view to the Germans in German talk shows, news programs etc. And as far as I remember there is somebody in Berlin being paid for representing the US in Germany. OK, he is inexistent in the German media, but this would have been the perfect moment to come out, no?
Is it tactics to keep such a low profile? Is it not seeing the necessity? Or is it simply incapacity?
Four years ago, when I was looking for a name for my website I finally chose anti-anti-americanism. On the one hand I thought it was maybe a bit megalomaniac, on the other hand the domain was still free, meaning nobody else had bothered so far. But actually I expected to receive a letter of the American embassy in Germany within the weeks to follow telling me something like: We appreciate your efforts, Karin, but we are the ones to do the job, we have the talent, the trained staff and the funds. But nothing alike happened. Naïve me! Only years later I found out why. The American ambassador in Germany does not see any anti-Americanism in Germany. So obviously no need to take action.
If this is so, no one should be surprised that Russia despite ongoing human rights violations is seen in a better light than the US. And I suspect this will not change as long as Russian public relations is perfect, and US public relations inexistent. Drinking cocktails in Berlin is simply not enough …