Bringing Germany Around
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page B07
American efforts to push Arab states and the Palestinians to embrace democracy may be a case of too little too soon, suggests Joschka Fischer, the wry ex-radical given the task of stabilizing Germany's ragged relations with the United States.
"Modernization in the Middle East is not only about politics. It is also about development and economics," the German foreign minister said the other day during his second fence-mending visit to Washington in six months. Broad political change of the kind envisioned by President Bush will come to the region only when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been resolved, he added.
Fischer sought to paint in soft hues this divide in U.S.-European official thinking about the Middle East. Understandable; his primary mission on this journey was to ease the sour mood that once again envelops Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Fischer's sophisticated demurral shows that the bold "forward strategy" of change that Bush has proposed for the Middle East has not yet commandeered the European support it deserves and needs.
Fortunately, that does not mean that Bush will -- or should -- quit trying to rally the Europeans to a more sustained and focused questioning of a collapsing status quo in the Arab world. Facing a common enemy, Americans and Europeans need a common strategy. Bush's approach may not be sufficient to deal with the problem, as Fischer suggests, but it is a necessary starting point for a joint effort.
American presidents do not habitually condemn foreign policies of the past nine administrations as a whole, especially when one of the preceding presidents is the incumbent's father and another -- Ronald Reagan -- his political idol.
But Bush has done so three times in the past three weeks, beginning with his ringing censure on Nov. 6 of "60 years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East."
He amplified that theme Wednesday in London, where he called on Europe to look honestly at the horrific results of "decades of failed policy in the Middle East" built on "a bargain to tolerate oppression for the sake of stability. Long-standing ties often led us to overlook the faults of local elites" who in the end have offered neither democracy nor stability.
Unspoken but clearly implied was the reality that Presidents George H.W. Bush and Reagan (as well as other American leaders and officials) tolerated the state terrorism practiced by Saddam Hussein and other Arab rulers on their own citizens when it was convenient to do so. They helped plant the seeds of today's bitter harvest of violence in the region.
The London speech will earn Bush 43 no love from the Washington careerists who preached then and still argue that getting along with dictators is the only option in the Middle East. But the president's facing up to the failures of that approach should give his call for change in the Middle East credibility with Europe.
Fischer strongly denied that the European Union is lagging behind the United States in the quest for stability-enhancing change. He listed aid projects and money spent, and regularly scheduled discussions between European and Arab leaders, as European Union contributions to calming the region. "The roles of the United States and European Union are different, but their interests are not," he said.
Building a new transatlantic consensus on the Middle East will not be easy. Fischer's list dealt with institutions and processes rather than the bold ideas and insistence on values voiced by Bush. Moreover, bitterness lingers at the White House over French and German opposition to U.S. policies on Iraq.
Fischer, who as a student led anti-U.S. demonstrations that frequently turned violent, has worked hard as foreign minister to turn the page on Iraq. Bush was sufficiently encouraged to reach out to Schroeder in a high-profile meeting in New York in September.
But the goodwill quickly evaporated when Germany pointedly announced it would provide neither significant financial support for Iraq's reconstruction nor token military help there. Feeling betrayed a second time, the White House has put Schroeder back in its doghouse, American and European diplomats report.
Fischer and others are hard at work again on this personal trust deficit. They must move urgently to overcome the conceptual gap that has opened between America and Europe over change in the Arab world. Neither continent can afford to neglect any resource available to fight killers who use death as message and means in their combat against both.
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