Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/19/2002 5:44:28 AM PDT by MadIvan
Whoever wins the general election in Germany this Sunday, the losers will be the German people.
This campaign has been disastrous for the country's reputation abroad, a reputation which had been carefully cultivated since the inception of the Federal Republic by statesmen of the calibre of Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, for whom the Atlantic alliance was the cornerstone of German foreign policy. The German electorate agreed: every time politicians pandered to anti-Americanism, they lost.
This time, it has been different. Chancellor Schröder and his challenger, Edmund Stoiber, are both canny provincial politicians, but there is nothing statesmanlike about either. Mr Schröder has failed even to diagnose the German malaise - low growth, red tape, high taxes, high unemployment - let alone to cure it.
Until recently the polls showed the opposition consistently ahead. With defeat staring him in the face, Mr Schröder had a stroke of luck. The floods that devastated much of east Germany enabled him to demonstrate generosity to the victims. Television debates with Mr Stoiber gave him the opportunity to shift the focus away from the economy and on to foreign affairs.
Mr Schröder did not, however, reiterate the pro-Western foreign policy that had served him and his popular foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, so well in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Instead, he abandoned it in favour of a "German path" of absolute opposition to war against Iraq. Mr Stoiber failed to pick up the gauntlet: he gave a muddled impression because he was too timid to back President Bush robustly.
When the American ambassador protested, Mr Schröder went further. Germany would withdraw troops stationed in Kuwait, it would not help pay for a war (as it had done in 1991, despite being in the throes of reunification), it would even ignore a United Nations resolution. Despite having infuriated not just Washington but Paris and London, too, Mr Schröder found his popularity soaring - not only at home, but also in Baghdad.
This acrimonious and polarised election is now too close to call. As much will depend on behind-the-scenes deals between the parties as on the voters. It may be that Mr Schröder, if he is re-elected, will abandon his "German path" and tiptoe back into the Western camp. Even so, the damage has been done. Trust in Germany as a reliable ally has been shattered. It was Bismarck who once said that the secret of politics was to do a deal with Russia, but Mr Schröder's perfidy has ensured that his close relations with President Putin will now arouse suspicion: shades of Rathenau and Ribbentrop still haunt Russo-German relations.
After Mr Schröder's open contempt for UN resolutions on Iraq, there can now be no question of Britain, France and America allowing Germany to become one of the permanent members of the Security Council. The immaturity of the ageing student radicals who now rule Germany will cost their countrymen dear. The price - isolation - will be paid for years to come.
Regards, Ivan
Somebody should copy and paste this statement and e-mail it to all the Euro-whiner politicians.
It's nice to see an opinion I have previously posted on Free Republic stated in a major British newspaper editorial
A sorry lack of leadership for which Germany will pay dear.
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