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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (51885)	10/14/2002 2:50:04 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The Washington Post is saying things are bad and not getting any better with our relationship with Germany. Hey, after spending 2 years in Baumholder, I think we would be better to get the troops out! washingtonpost.com The Poison Lingers By Jackson Diehl Monday, October 14, 2002; Page A29 BERLIN -- The hope here was that by now, three weeks after Gerhard Schroeder won reelection by promising to oppose a U.S. "adventure" in Iraq, the post-campaign makeup with Washington would be well underway. Instead, to the quiet dismay of policymakers on both sides, the poison appears to be just sinking in. High-level communication between the White House and Schroeder's German chancellery remains nonexistent. The German leader appears oblivious to the intense feeling of injury radiating from George W. Bush, who was compared to Hitler by Schroeder's justice minister in the campaign's closing days. Senior officials of the German defense ministry know nothing of the Pentagon's preparations for Iraq. There are no plans for a Bush-Schroeder meeting, and some officials say they fear there may be none even when the two leaders encounter each other five weeks from now at a NATO summit in Prague. Even a visit to Washington later this month by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer faces a fundamental challenge: What is there now to talk about? Plenty, Fischer told me in a meeting here last week. But in substance, he acknowledged, the gaps remain wide even post-election. Germany is still forswearing participation in any military campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein, even with United Nations approval. Some here suggest that even after a war, Berlin would duck contributions to peacekeeping or reconstruction. "We will probably choose to focus on Afghanistan," said one official, citing Germany's offer to take over co-command of the Kabul peacekeeping operation. The trouble is not limited to Iraq: Germany also is resisting the Bush administration's proposal that NATO use the upcoming summit to create a new "reaction force" that could accompany U.S. forces on missions beyond continental Europe. Such divergences might be taken as the natural result of Germany's growing assertiveness in the Schroeder era -- like the United States, this European powerhouse finally is beginning to use the strength it gained with the end of the Cold War. Schroeder's stump declarations about "a German way" for foreign policy, with "decisions made in Berlin" -- phrases that were far more politically incorrect in the European context than those on Iraq -- seem to be less calculated populist appeals than the blurted-out true feelings of a German chauvinist determined to defend his country's interests. Yet, say his critics here, no real strategy lies behind Schroeder's rhetoric. His government has no serious intention of deviating from the historical postwar strategy of European integration, while a lasting rift in Germany's security alliance with the United States remains unthinkable. Consequently, the campaign antics have accomplished the opposite of what Schroeder might have wished: Rather than increasing Berlin's clout, Schroeder has merely isolated his country. "For a good while Germany is not going to be very influential either in America or Europe or the United Nations," says Christoph Bertram of the German Institute for International Policy and Security. With time, such a rift could be healed, as a second Schroeder administration reconnects with France, Britain and the Bush administration at some post-Iraq junction. But that scenario discounts the poison -- not just the enduring bitterness at the White House and Pentagon, but the anti-American feeling now in the German atmosphere. Schroeder's campaign, say some here, has effectively licensed Washington-bashing as an accepted part of German public discourse, breaking a taboo that had lasted a half-century. "It's now possible to rally support in the streets of Germany by making anti-American statements," says Friedburt Pflueger, a parliament member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, who still seethes over Schroeder's election tactics -- and what he sees as Washington's failure to respond to them strongly before the election. "As a result we have had a change in the basic attitude toward the United States in this country that might be more dangerous in the long run" than the pique in Washington. Pflueger predicts "there will never again be trust and confidence between Berlin and Washington," at least while Bush and Schroeder are in office. And much as he would like to return to business as usual, Fischer seems to recognize that the poison won't disperse on its own, that some amends are essential. "I deeply, deeply regret the impressions," he said at our meeting. "I don't know what the justice minister said, but only the impression that there would be a link between the president of the United States, one of the oldest and most important democracies, and a criminal against mankind is ridiculous." A public statement such as that from Schroeder, extended to his own rhetoric as well as that of the dismissed minister, is the only likely starting point for neutralizing the bile. So far, there's no sign that it's coming. washingtonpost.com