Michael,
I know you are German and I appreciate your initiative in contacting the Chancellor's office.Please understand that the remarks that follow are not directed to you personally, but are my observations.
In my opinion, the correct response from all governments allied with us should be that the military option is not off the table. That says a very different thing from that there is no military option at this time.
The UN and the EU are taking no concrete steps at this time to make Iran stop their progress toward getting a nuclear device. When they get one, it will be used against Israel and US interests, either here in the US or abroad.
That means me and my family are at risk directly. Having lost three people on 9/11/01 that I knew, you'll have to forgive me if I take Iran's posturings seriously.
Having protected you and yours on our dime for over fifty years entitles me to want to have a more aggressive posture by the German government to Iranian stonewalling and outright deception.
Talking time is over. The question is when we will strike. Now, or later, when it will be much more costly in terms of human lives on all sides.
Iran is a boil that has to be lanced. What I am seeing from European governments is typical head-in-the-sand, and hope the US solves the problem. We can't even get the EU countries to staff a measly 15,000 soldiers for the Lebanonese peacekeeping force. We have eight times that just in Iraq.
Michael, I'll level with you. I am sick and tired of paying for everyone's else's security, and no reciprocation. If the European countries were more forceful, Iran might back down. But they have you all cowering, and they continue their bluster.
In the US, you either confront evil or you have live under its boot. The latter is unthinkable to free men.
The German position is that military options are not off the table! Just at the moment. This is still the time of talk. I understand that the impatience, but you can be sure that neither the EU, Israel or the US will accept a nuclear-armed Iran. So, I fully trust our leaders that they´ll stop Iran in time, and we can hope that this can be achieved by diplomacy. If diplomacy fails (the deathline hasn´t passed yet), the necessary steps will be taken, with or without the approval of Russia and China. NATO has acted once against the UN (1999), it can repeat that. There´s no dispute between Merkel and Bush on Iran.