The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa • Hacker News Board

Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

#71

Post by ArkVark » Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 9:24 AM UTC

mbo wrote: post #69

chrisseaton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a shame that a diplomatic mission of such a close friend needs to be armoured like this in London.

Meanwhile the US Embassy in Canberra, Australia is a 18th century Georgian style colonial townhouse. Photo: https://au.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/canberra/

Canberra is an isolated, artificial city, where everyone who lives there works for the Government or provides services to those workers. Inside Canberra itself, the embassies are all clustered together. Its secure by design.

Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

#72

Post by KONAir » Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 9:28 AM UTC

aborsy wrote: post #52

It’s interesting that the most socialist states pursue exactly the same objectives that the most capitalistic states pursue outside their national borders, often involving war, violence and exploitation. The discourse internally is however one of solidarity, fraternity and equality.

It is not interesting at all if Stalins and Hitlers ghosts are still haunting, it would have been odd if d'Gaulles ghost wasn't around.

Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

#73

Post by ArkVark » Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 9:28 AM UTC

codekansas wrote: post #43

The latest edition of the Economist had an article about the recent coup in Mali, and about the (rather obvious) need for institution-building rather than pure military interventions by European powers: https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/08/19/... Mostly unrelatedly, whenever I see these types of forts I am reminded of the forts that workers build in Civ 5, which are equally useless

If those institutions are completely staffed and run by Europeans, protected by European security forces, you will jumpstart the development of the country by several decades.

Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

#74

Post by chrisseaton » Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 11:25 AM UTC

mbo wrote: post #69

chrisseaton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a shame that a diplomatic mission of such a close friend needs to be armoured like this in London.

Meanwhile the US Embassy in Canberra, Australia is a 18th century Georgian style colonial townhouse. Photo: https://au.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/canberra/

> a 18th century Georgian style colonial townhouse

Not sure where you're reading this... it was built in the 1940s. I mean Canberra itself wasn't founded until 1901 and the oldest building is from 1845... so not sure how you think there was a townhouse there in the 18th century.

And it's inside a secure compound. And someone rammed the gates not long ago.

Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

#75

Post by rumanator » Wed, Aug 26, 2020, 11:30 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #34

wffurr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The decorative aspect is actually a major piece of it's function here. It's intended to be highly visible, and maintaining a highly visible military presence is part of counterinsurgency tactics. It's also a very French thing to do.

> The decorative aspect is actually a major piece of it's function here. It's intended to be highly visible Decorative doesn't mean highly visible, it means the only value is in the looks. Star forts in europe are purely decorative, they don't have any function aside from looking rather neat (and the historical context /value I guess).

> Star forts in europe are purely decorative,

Your assertion is simply wrong. "Star forts" is what you get when you optimize a defensive structure where you want to maximize line of sight from loop holes, minimize blind spots, and ensure that if the enemy overruns parts of their defensive structure they can't use it to shield themselves from loopholes in other parts of your fortification.