Posted on 07/14/2005 10:40:27 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BERLIN - Opposition leader Angela Merkel, leading in polls for fall elections, signaled Thursday that she would continue Germany's limited support for rebuilding Iraq, but she would not say whether the war made the world safer — hedging on an issue where she's vulnerable to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Merkel indicated approval for what Schroeder's government is doing now, which includes training Iraqi security forces in the United Arab Emirates.
"It's right that the German government has supported stabilization and reconstruction," Merkel told foreign journalists. "And when we're in government we'll take another look at the situation as it is ... there is a commonality with the government that this course should be continued."
Still, Merkel said she could not say whether the 2003 Iraq war actually made the world a safer place.
She balanced an assertion that practices at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention facility should be less secret with a declaration that terrorists need to be kept from carrying out more attacks.
The conservatives, led by Merkel, have opened a wide lead in opinion polls ahead of the expected September election, raising the prospect of defeat for Schroeder's center-left government after seven years in office.
Schroeder's steadfast opposition to the war in Iraq and refusal to send German troops there has been one of his few winning issues as the economy has remained mired in stagnation and unemployment has grown to 11.3 percent.
The issue is no longer as prominent as it was when Schroeder used it to narrowly win re-election in 2002, but his Social Democratic Party still gave it a prominent place in this year's election platform.
If Merkel had been in power then, "German troops would now be in Baghdad — with all the consequences," it claimed — an assumption conservatives have disputed.
Merkel traveled to Washington in 2003 and criticized Schroeder for opposing the war under any circumstances, saying that lessened pressure on Saddam Hussein and made a peaceful solution less likely.
But she was criticized in her own party ranks after she returned and has kept a low profile on the issue even as she says she would improve ties with the United States.
Asked if the war had made the world safer, she demurred.
"I can't answer this question, if it's safer or not safer," she said. "There are big problems in Iraq, no question, but also much progress ... the world doesn't always develop in the most ideal way."
Not good enough for me.
"If Merkel had been in power then, "German troops would now be in Baghdad — with all the consequences," it claimed"
Another reason why Germany is not ready for a seat on the Security Council.
Dying civilization ping.
What would you say when 80% of your own nation opposed the war and you want to lead that nation???
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