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Germany as a nation post WWII has never carried its weight.

No matter how you look it, throughout the entire Cold War they paid less, and did less than even other NATO nations proportionally. What you see in Afghanistan and elsewhere is in reality nothing more than the continuation of this “do nothing” or “do as little as possible” way of thinking which has dominated German security policy post WWII, even when their own rear was on the line.

Essentially what it all boils down too is the complete lack of a threat picture, some anti-American undertones, the opportunistic advantages economically when standing on the sidelines and doing trade with such rogue states, and the avoidance of any associated costs may they be politically (damage to your career), economically (defense spending) or in blood (dead soldiers and/or terrorism).

Politically Schroeder probably had to do what he did to survive 2002. It wasn’t right, but his political survival was paramount (to him personally) and that’s why he retreated in Afghanistan and even played the anti-war card in the 2002 elections.

To give you some insight let me use a real world example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_181
Had this operation gone wrong, Schmidt would have been crushed. It would have instantly ended his political career. Politically the low risk alternative was to let things go their course and even if there is a negative outcome (i.e. the terrorists blow up the plane), Schmidt himself would have politically survived that. Letting the terrorists have their way would have been the political less dangerous course of action.

Schmidt was willing to take egg in the face reference the stationing of nuclear Pershing missile systems. He defended low altitude flights, etc. But today the average German has a near zero threat perception, so what politician is realistically going to stand up and defend an eavesdropping system in Bad Ailbling, a missile defense shield, etc? Most will stand there saying nothing while the media is in attack mode and some provincial politician is scoring big with cheap shots.

Don’t expect them to do much. They never did much in the past, and now they don’t even see a threat to themselves, at least the layperson sees it that way. What their security apparatus see and operate under is completely different. Their version of the FBI (BfV) and CIA (BND) know very well what’s going on. But it’s the perception of the layperson which many politicians pander too. So realize, pre-1989 the Germans own rear was on the line and at least then they could be expected to “toe the line” on issues of collective security. But today that isn’t the case either, and Schroeder was the perfect example in 2002. The “Realpolitik” is dead, and today may it be over flights of jets, or the SOFA, the Germans will play games because they don’t have a perceived need for us or NATO. They actually did in 1997 and 1999 but that was quickly forgotten.

The Germans in all reality share ALL our collective interests. More so than France or Spain! They are and will remain allies because our interests are all aligned, but they will be worthless for the foreseeable future in regards to security matters and they might even fall in our back when internal political opportunism sees an advantage in doing so (i.e. internal national politics drives foreign policy).

Merkel in the grand scheme of things is a “good guy.” It’s not even that she’s pro-US, but she’s pro-Germany, and she realizes that these threats and problems like in Russia are no joking matter. Unlike Schroeder she is willing to take some egg in the face, she has made several statements reference certain threats………… While you can't expect the Germans to do much anywhere, at least she won't take shots at the missile defense shield as Schroeder did in 2000 when the whole thing began rolling. If we were to attack Iran in the future, Merkel would not work against us like Schroeder did....... Merkel is someone constructive and pragmatic in security matters, and that's good.