New Chancellor comes to call (Germany´s Merkel meets President Bush)

Washington Times ^ | Robert Gerald Livingston

[Southack]

"I have later explained that we should find a third way in the middle. It´s a problem, but no obstacle for good relations between us. I think I ´ve said enough on this thread, forgive me. :-)"

The global Left was attempting to use the Iraq issue to "put the U.S. in its place."

Now Schroeder's gone. Hussein is in jail. Martin's government has collapsed in Canada. Chirac has tumbled to 23% popularity in riot-ravaged France.

Meanwhile, President Bush was re-elected. Poland re-elected a conservative government. Koizumi won Japan's recent elections. Howard won Australia's last election. Blair won a record 3rd term as the UK's Prime Minister, etc.

In short, the global Left lost everywhere except in Spain. They picked an idiotic side in an idiotic fight and they lost convincingly.

That being said, if Germany's new conservative Chancellor Merkel wants Guantonamo closed, then I'm all for closing it merely to give her a domestic victory.

The U.S. has plenty of bases around the world. We can keep terrorists jailed in Guam if we want. Or in Iraq. Doesn't really matter.

And while there is nothing wrong with continuing to use Gitmo, it's also smart to give our fledgling allies important domestic political victories in areas where we hold all of the cards.

Let Ms. Merkel show her European constituency that constructive dialog, rather than open antagonism, works wonders with U.S. foreign policy. For that, sure, I'd be willing to close Gitmo down.

It would make for a heck of an insult to Schroeder, and that alone is reason enough to do it.

[La Enchiladita]

Letting you know I read your post and it is thought-provoking. Secty. Rice said last summer in re Gitmo, "The U.S. believes in international law." As others have pointed out, the Geneva Convention does not apply as these prisoners are not uniformed combatants following rules of engagement. We are.

In terms of anyone's opinion, Gitmo is no win situation. But it must be done. Americans are unique in the world, I think, in doing what needs to be done no matter how "unpopular." No one else will do it.

As the German posters on this thread have shown, they would not have the stomach to do similarly should their own 9/11 occur... or, so they say.

[La Enchiladita]

What gives Germany the right to make demands on the U.S.?

[La Enchiladita]

Haven´t you also put Japanese in camps during WW2?

They all came out alive after the war.

Can you say the same for the millions of Jews, gypsies and other dissidents herded into WWII Nazi concentration camps, starved, tortured and gassed to death?

Your ignorance and arrogance are showing again.

[La Enchiladita]

You, Michael and the other German guy are just visiting the U.S., under the guise of the internet, to bash our country. All your cliches are tried and true leftist propaganda. Try coming over here and discussing in person what you have to say.

[La Enchiladita]

To sum up what you said:

"It's all BUSH's fault!" BWA-HA-HA!!

[La Enchiladita]

Merkel's fantasy land
By Diana West
January 13, 2006
The Washington Times


Good morning, Madame Chancellor. Here you are, Germany's Angela Merkel, on your first trip to Washington, D.C., preparing for your meeting with President Bush. As you look out of your Blair House window over Lafayette Square toward the White House, consider the historicity of the era: the beginning of Mr. Bush's sixth year leading his country, and the beginning of your first year leading your country in the so-called war on terror. Or is that the war on Guantanamo Bay? I get them confused.

That's because in just about every account of your American trip -- biggish news in Europe -- it is prominently mentioned that Guantanamo Bay is prominently high on your list of, well, prominent concerns. Trouble spots. Global things you lose sleep over.

This is, with due respect, bizarre. Iran is going nuclear, Europe is going Islamic, Russia is going off the reservation, China is a fearsome thing, and your big concern is sending what is called a "clear message" to Mr. Bush about Guantanamo Bay, the tropical jail where the United States keeps jihadis on ice -- and keeps the rest of the world safer as a result. But that's not what you say. "An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term," you told the German news magazine Der Spiegel this week. "Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners."

I have a suggestion: How 'bout if we ship all these guys, unflushed Korans and all, to Germany? Maybe 72 Virgin Air would cut us a deal. Then you -- Germany -- can parole them to Lebanon.


That, of course, is just what you did just before Christmas with Mohammad Ali Hammadi, the convicted Hezbollah killer of Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem. In case you didn't know, Mr. Stethem is one of our American heroes, a courageous young Navy diver who became an early casualty of the war on Islamic terror. In 1985, at age 23, he was beaten to an unrecognizable pulp by Hammadi and his gang, shot through the head and dumped onto a Beirut runway during the Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847. But, as his brother Kenneth reminded President Bush in a letter this week posted by Michael Ledeen at National Review Online, "He wouldn't give in to the demands of the terrorists," who wanted him to scream into a transmitter for airplane fuel. "He would not allow the honor and dignity of America to be intimidated by the fear and pain that Hammadi and terrorists everywhere represent."

Such is the Hezbollah terrorist that you, Madame Chancellor, set free. And funny thing: Shortly after, your own German hostage in Iraq, Suzanne Osthoff, was released from captivity. Which is quite a coincidence. But so was the fact that after the hostage-takers said Miss Osthoff would be killed unless Germany stopped training Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi government announced, according to the news Web site Deutsche Welle, that Iraq would be seeking security training elsewhere.

And there was more. Miss Osthoff says Germany paid a ransom to secure her freedom, maybe as much as $5 million, according to a German wire service report translated online by Transatlantic Intelligencer. In other words, despite your refusal to be "blackmailed" over Miss Osthoff's release, Germany seems to be a country terrorists can do business with--including, very possibly, Robert Stethem's killer, and his Hezbollah masters with Iraqi terror connections.

But doing business with terrorists doesn't buy peace. It just buys more business. I'm guessing that publicly confronting President Bush over Guantanamo is, along these same lines, business as usual -- doing jihadists' bidding in a craven bid to spare Germany a September 11, a March 11, or a July 7. It's just a hunch; but it fits a dispiriting pattern of surrender.

Such a pattern never marked Robert Stethem, as his brother's letter reminded the president: "You have truly said that 'We are in a fight for our principles, and our responsibility is to live by them,'" Kenneth Stethem wrote. "Robert lived by them. Robert also died by them... I hope that his example, and the example of the other heroes like him, can inspire you to understand why allowing Germany to release Hammadi was a wrong. Justice was not done. Robert was not honored and Americans are not safer by allowing Hammadi to return to Lebanon and Hezbollah."

Of course, Germany isn't safer either, nor is any other Western nation. This is the "clear message" I certainly hope you hear from President Bush.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1557843/posts

[Atlantic Bridge]

You, Michael and the other German guy are just visiting the U.S., under the guise of the internet, to bash our country. All your cliches are tried and true leftist propaganda. Try coming over here and discussing in person what you have to say.

BuHuHaHa! You must be joking? Right? Although I do not have any problems to tell you about my point of view, you should understand that I must support my family instead of flying to the US just to tell you about contemporary European policy.

Stop - just wait - I charge 120,- Euros/hour, a good hotel and a Lufthansa first class ticket (since I am an qualified architekt and civil engineer those prices and conditions are quite suitable), if you want to talk to me eye to eye in America. You can have it a littlebit cheaper when you visit me here in southern Germany. I will give you 2 hours of my precious time just for free. :-)

Besides - I would never ever bash America for a "tried cliché". Just like many Germans I have reason to be thankful for many beautiful things your country gave to me. This is a wide field starting with the declaration of independence i.e. (Which was a first definition about those "human rights" that we both are argueing about. The influence of this stroke of genius can still be felt all around the world), the Berlin air-lift, the toppling of the Berlin wall, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright, Sinatra, the "Rat Pack" and many more beautiful things. Believe it or not: If we criticize we do it as friends and not as enemies.

[Michael81Dus]

Unlike the US, we have apologized that the Nazis committed the worst genocide for religious reasons in worlds history (for political reasons one can argue that the Russians and Chinese did a lot more).

Has the US apologized to the Japanese inmates of the camps?

[Michael81Dus]

Leave her alone in her dreamworld. She believes I were a troll, because she never learned to discuss different opinions.

[freema]

I don't know that anyone would want to have a conversation with such an elitist attitude.

[freema]

Apples and oranges

or

pizza and jews.

The difference?

Pizzas don't scream when you throw them in the oven.

[La Enchiladita]

You had a lot more to apologize for.

[La Enchiladita]

I have discussed your "different" opinions and explained to you why you are wrong. So have several others here.

Here is another article to enjoy:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1556614/posts?page=56

[Atlantic Bridge]

Leave her alone in her dreamworld. She believes I were a troll, because she never learned to discuss different opinions.

Yep! Anyway it is a littlebit sad that there are still so many uninformed people who are that blinded by silly propaganda and boil in a nameless wave of hate. The good news are that their point of view is absolutely irrelevant to practical politics.

Angie and G.W.B. indeed opened a new page of the trans-atlantic relation- and friendship.

[La Enchiladita]

[americanbychoice2]

bad choice michael.
The answer is yes and the US also paid retributions.

[globalheater]

interesting question ...


do you now the answer - i don't

btw was that related to anything I said ?

[Blue State Insurgent]

Not Michael. Merkel.