When you have nothing to stand on, you try to make it about anything else except what's going on in your country and under your administration.
For example, Gerhardt Schroeder former German chancellor was in office and ran on an entirely anti-Iraq war platform in 2002. But the Germans had no forces there, they weren't the ones enforcing the no fly and wheel zones, didn't have troops in the Kurdish areas, it wasn't their chancellor who had an assassination attempt made against him in Kuwait by the Iraqi intel service, they weren’t part of the 91 coalition... Why do they do this?
At the same time Schroeder was making Iraq into a common German household topic and dominating the German news, Germany was experiencing high inflation, high unemployment, a spike in crime, literally every social and economic indicator at the time was negative. Did Schroeder really want to talk about any of that?
***So, you take something which in all reality is “none of your GD business” and inject yourself, preferably on whatever side seems to be the most popular supported view.***
Desperation does not mean Lula or the party he's trying to back will lose, Schroeder won. But it does mean he knows he can't argue using the accomplishments of his administration. It's an election year in Brazil.
I felt like I was Eichmann on trial in Israel. Remember, this was just a few days after Iraq invaded, long before anyone responded. But I guess among Germans, the U.S. was always the bad guy, I guess because it was a foregone conclusion we would invade Iraq. I don't remember any shade being cast at Saddam Hussein. Boy, that was uncomfortable.