This is ***exactly*** what I mean by Germany stabbing others in the back.No,Germany today is not militarily aggressive...not in the least.But by doing business with enemies of western civilization (Iran,for example) and by always seeming to side with that KGB agent in Moscow (the one who clearly longs for the days of Stalin's enlightened rule) Germany and other countries have seriously threatened world peace and stability.
Now I understand that with the election of Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy things could very well improve but Schroeder,Chirac and others,IMO,deserve to be tried for crimes against world peace and stability.
Well - Germany has many different interests than the US or other western nations. The contemporary world is a struggle of different ideas, markets and philosophies. Therefore it is quite logical that we Germans insist on our right to do business or to have political relations with everybody we want to. As a German I have to say that it should be clear that we Germans first fight for our own interests.
To give you an example - It was President Bush who declined Kyoto with the argument "America first". He did not want to risk American jobs for a European hullabaloo. This is perfectly okay with me. We Germans do nothing different when we continue to sell refrigerators to the Iranians. Furthermore your very own US-administration has close economic and political relations with some of the most terrible crooks we both can think of.
A few funny examples: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the ChiComs. The Pakistanis and the Chinese even have numerous nukes and are as reliable as the Iranians would be if they would have some.
For someone who calls Pakistan an ally our German connections to Russia, a country that respects human rights (i.e. they do not have capital punishment in difference to the US anymore - something quite important to Europeans and their values), that has a working justice system, that has elections and democracy and that has -last but not least- changed into a capitalist system should be perfectly okay. Anything else would be extremely hypocritical.