Schröder: 'complete success'

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ^ | February 25, 2005 | William Pratt

[NCjim]

During Bush visit, chancellor says he and president have settled their differences

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was determined to make the best out of Wednesday's much-anticipated visit by U.S. President George W. Bush. But just when the chancellor wanted to make an especially good impression, he ran into a bit of trouble.

”I would like to raise my glass to German-American friendship and cooperation,” Schröder told the guests assembled for a midday banquet in Mainz.

But then the chancellor added: ”That is if I had a glass.” But when no one rushed to give him one, the chancellor was forced to do a little rhetoric dancing that delighted his audience. The chancellor said he had always preferred to be the cook, and not the waiter anyway. But from Schröder's perspective, the unexpected complication was the only problem he experienced during Bush's visit to Mainz. And after Air Force One had taken to the skies on early Wednesday evening, the chancellor was saying the trip was ”a complete success.”

It was a feeling that Bush also expressed before he jetted off to the next part of his European trip, Bratislava, Slovakia. ”We can't have good relations with Europe when we don't have a good friendship with Germany,” Bush said. ”This is a great country in the heart of Europe.”

It has taken the leaders more than two years to reach this point in a relationship that has been marked by conflict. The collapse began in 2002, when Schröder was facing re-election and Bush was thinking about invading Iraq. During his campaign, Schröder announced in August 2002 that Germany would not participate in an attack on Iraq without a U.N. mandate. A week later, he said German troops would not join an attack even with such a mandate.

Such stances angered the Bush administration. Ronald Asmus, a former member of the Clinton administration, explained why in a contribution he wrote for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ”It is reported that the things Schröder is saying about Iraq are exactly the opposite of what he discussed with Bush earlier,” Asmus wrote in September 2002.

Schröder then joined France and Russia in an attempt to block a possible U.S. invasion. The effort failed, and the two leaders have been forced in the years since to rebuild a relationship that was forged during the Cold War, when West Germany was threatened by a massive Soviet-led force and the United States formed the foundation of the Germans' defense.

On Wednesday, the two went about the repair work in Mainz, a city located on the banks of the Rhine river in central Germany. ”We don't want to conceal the fact that we had differences of opinion in the past,” Schröder said. ”But that is the past.”

In one step aimed at finding a common ground, the two leaders worked out an agreement on the environment. The issue clouded the countries' relationship at the very start of Bush's first term in 2001, when the new president opposed the Kyoto Protocol aimed at limiting global warming. Under the new agreement, the United States and Germany agreed to help developing countries obtain low-cost and environmentally friendly sources of energy, and to reduce greenhouse gases.

The leaders also touched on another potentially divisive issue - Iran and its nuclear program. Iran maintains that it is interested only in production of electricity. But the Bush administration says the program is a front for developing nuclear arms.

Germany, France and Britain opened negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue in the autumn of 2003. But, last month, the New Yorker magazine reported that the Bush administration had been conducting secret spying missions inside Iran since mid-2004. The story said the missions were designed to gather intelligence on declared and suspected nuclear, chemical and missile sites.

In Mainz, Bush tried to ease Europe's worries that the United States was about to strike the country that neighbors Iraq. ”Diplomacy is just beginning,” Bush said. ”Iran is not Iraq.”

But the leaders did not address a series of other potentially touchy subjects, including the possibility that the European Union will remove its weapons embargo on China and Schröder's desire for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Nonetheless, Schröder was even in a joking mood at a joint news conference with Bush. ”We have agreed that we will not discuss issues where we disagree. We will just talk about those where we agree,” he said.

The good feeling was shared by members of the German coalition and opposition alike.

Environmental Minister Jürgen Trittin praised the environmental agreement. ”Bush is sending a signal to the American people that something has to be done about environmental changes,” Trittin said. From the political opposition, one member said the Bush visit represented a new direction. ”It is a sign of progress that the governments are talking to each other in a friendly atmosphere,” said Wolfgang Schäuble, a former chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, Germany's biggest opposition party.

Despite the friendly words, a member of Schröder's Social Democratic Party pointed out that Bush and the German chancellor disagreed on security issues. ”There are still wide differences, and they will not disappear overnight,” said Hans-Ulrich Klose, the vice chairman of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

[Cicero]

Schroeder is a pathetic jerk if he thinks he can insult and badmouth Bush and then turn around with some pissant joke and make it right again. He has a bad case of hubris.