Reply #108: There are many strange comments on here...

[teknomanzer]

and I suspect its because not too many of the comments are from service members or former service members. What I can tell you all is that this sort of order is very common and indeed expected in light of what happened in London.

Indeed when I was stationed in Germany there was a temporary ban on travel to the area around Bayreuth (I remember this well because I had a Fraulein living in the that particular city) due to the possibility of neo-nazi demonstrations taking place commemorating Hitler's birthday or some such shit. Well it was well known that such demonstrations were illegal in Germany and just as soon as anyone made any such display they would likely be arrested. (I even once witnessed such an arrest take place) But despite this the base commander still issued a ban on travel to the area in question as American military personnel could become targets for violence.

The same is likely true for London the risk for american military personnel being much greater than the example above. There are probably a handful of reasons for the ban, all of which are for the safety of US military personnel. There are some blokes who are not very fond of American military folk (I witnessed some veiled hostility back in the 1980's and I'm not sure if this has changed much) and seeing an american soldier (or airman as the case may be) strutting down the street could be a rather painful reminder to the Brit of just who may have stirred up the hornets nest. Our hapless GI might serve as a proxy for Bush in receiving such resentments. And there is the likelihood of some other elements that would relish the idea of doing harm to an american soldiers.

The ban on London is probably not permanent and will likely be lifted after a while.