Rabid Weasels
The sickness of "old Europe" is a danger to the world.
BY BRENDAN MINITER - February 11, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
opinionjournal.com
A top German official visited The Wall Street Journal's editorial offices last week and tried to make a moral case for allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in power. Instead he revealed more about why Germany wants to keep the dictator in Baghdad and the need for the U.S. to press for reform in "old Europe" as well as in the Middle East.
"Saddam is a bad guy," German Interior Minister Otto Schily conceded, "but he is no Hitler." Hitler was much, much worse, he explained; he well understood the history of the 1930s and '40s. It was as if Mr. Schily, and the half dozen German officials at his side, thought everyone else was listening to their accents and imagining them wearing Nazi uniforms. He seemed determined to show that his nation had learned that aggression was wrong. The inspectors are working, he pleaded; we just need more of them, "perhaps as many as 5,000." As the meeting broke up, the minister's spokesman said plaintively: "I hope we can still be friends."
These are not the words of a self-confident leader meeting the security challenges of today. They are the mumblings of a defeated nation, perpetually holding its head in shame for its past atrocities. Even today, more than 50 years since World War II ended, German officials cannot attend a conference or take to a public stage without in words or demeanor apologizing for their country's past. It is no surprise then that Germany cannot muster the will to make a moral, military stand.
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