Long Article from "The Spectator"
I have a mixed reaction towards the article. Some points look true, others are exaggerated or don't apply. Gimson has written his article after visiting this event:
Symposium "Unanswered questions"
hintergrund.de
Gimson's description sounds as if the Tempodrom meeting had German roots. But one of the key speakers, Mike Ruppert, is a well-known US guest. The link list leads to a number of US sites:
911truth.org
911truth.org
unansweredquestions.org
unansweredquestions.org
copvcia.com
copvcia.com
madcowprod.com
madcowprod.com
americanfreepress.net
americanfreepress.net
911-strike.com
911-strike.com
questionsquestions.net
questionsquestions.net
truth-now.com
truth-now.com
cooperativeresearch.org
cooperativeresearch.org
thewaronfreedom.com
thewaronfreedom.com
onlinejournal.com
onlinejournal.com
So those people which Gimson tries to depict as the forefront of anti-Americanism heavily rely or even depend on input from American colleagues.
... in order to ... establish world domination
Isn't that PNAC's aim - to secure American predominance in the 21st century?
Another American who works in an office full of educated Germans said, ‘With every American soldier that dies the schadenfreude is immense.'
I can't believe this. I haven't experienced a similar scene. Generally Gimson ascribes an importance to Iraq in the German public discussion which it doesn't have. The media are dominated by the economic and social troubles - very high unemployment possibly reaching five million this winter (close to Weimar times), rising taxes, rising public deficit, violation of EU rules, cuts in healthcare, cuts in subsidies. This is what dominates radio and TV talk. Iraq and the war on terror are very peripheral topics.
The Germans hope the Americans will fail in Iraq.
No. The papers I read (Zeit, Tagesspiegel) know that success in Iraq is important for all western democracies.
.... accompanied by an astonishingly low estimate of the Americans’ abilities, lower even than the BBC sometimes conveys.
This sentence and the following paragraph are based on statements by a single person, a Dr. Fichter. I doubt it's a widespread opinion. To all citizens who have at least a superficial knowledge of military affairs it is more than obvious that the military part of the Iraq campaign was successful.
... office of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and found the Chancellor’s staff giggling about Mr Bush in front of another American reporter.
Such juvenile, and breathtakingly unprofessional, ...
Now that could be true. Schröder is no statesman.
By using this rancid anti-Americanism to win re-election, Mr Schröder gave his blessing as Chancellor to it.
Yes, this was ugly.
The period of good behaviour by subservient Germans has ended, to be followed by a period of bad behaviour which can only be understood as a kind of belated adolescent rebellion
Yes, it's amazing how little attention foreign policy gets currently in Germany. There are very few politicians with a solid and mature background.
What is more, Germany will only recover its economic dynamism when its dopey political class, among whom the pursuit of consensus long ago degenerated into listless moral cowardice, introduces reforms which give the German economy some of the flexibility and spontaneity found in America. This is a bitter pill to swallow, and the Germans as yet show no sign of finding the stomach for it.
Milton Friedman for German President! |
