Poll: Germans Believe U.S. a Nation of Warmongers

Reuters ^ | 2/10/2003

[Interloper]

BERLIN (Reuters) - A majority of Germans believe the United States is a nation of warmongers and only six percent think President Bush (news - web sites) is interested in keeping the peace, according to a survey published Monday.

The poll by the respected Forsa institute, published in the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, also found 97 percent of those questioned believed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was ready to go to war.

The survey found 57 percent agreed with the statement: "The United States is a nation of warmongers."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has angered the Bush administration with his outspoken opposition to a war in Iraq, a position that has widespread backing in Germany where six million people were killed during World War II.

Tens of thousands of Germans have taken part in anti-war rallies in recent weeks.

The survey of 1,843 Germans found 93 percent believed Bush was ready to go to war in pursuit of his interests, while 80 percent said the United States wanted war to boost its power.

The poll also found 89 percent believed Schroeder was a "friend of peace."

[An.American.Expatriate]

You are mistaken!!

[Cabbages and Kings]

Rummy is right! The old Europe is an appropiate lable, France and Germany are passe - ignore them. When Russia trys to strut, ignore them also! but tell them and the world why, that's important.

[desertcry]

Yeah, WWI, and WWII was started by the warmongering Americans, and hitler was an American. Wow, these krauts are sure BIGTIME HYPOCRITs, it's just beyond belief!

[optimistically_conservative]

Would you help put my concerns to rest?

I served in Germany from 1988-1992. I spoke German fairly well and lived on the economy. I made friends with my neighbors and the German soldiers we served with.

I'm starting to get the impression there has been a "madrassa" movement since the wall fell in Germany to re-educate the German public - in the media or in public schools - to downplay Americanism (even anti-Americanism) and improve nationalism.

This poll really bothers me. I no longer think this is a problem with the Schroeder administration, but a rift in the transatlantic friendship brought about by EU-ism and nationalism from German reunification and anti-NATO expansion feelings.

I'm really at the end of my rope here. I'm asking my reps in Congress to support Bush/Rumsfeld in relocating US forces from Germany and sanctioning German businesses.

[hellinahandcart]

First off - Germany has been taught well that they should not engage in any wars. Now they don't and everyone calls them Nazis... Go figure..

I will help you figure it out.

It's because they have decided to actively give aid and comfort to yet another Jew-hating totalitarian state, ruled by a spiritual descendant of Hitler (see roots of Baath party), instead of behaving with honor or with the least sense of gratitude to the United States.

I can call the Germans whatever I like now with impunity.

[desertcry]

The krauts learned from the clintons and the democrats very quickly.

[MadIvan]

You've got to be bloody kidding me. Halt die Klappe and sit way, way back in the room, Fritz.

Regards, Ivan

[JCEccles]

First off - Germany has been taught well that they should not engage in any wars. Now they don't and everyone calls them Nazis

Germany has not been so "taught." Germany was prepared throughout the span of the Cold War to fight to the death the Soviet authoritarian threat. That threat has dissolved, largely through US resolve, resulting in the liberation of the communist-enslaved masses of eastern Europe.

Saddam is another authoritarian threat, able and willing to invade other nations and to employ weapons of mass destruction. However, Germany has done an about-face and now stands ready to protect this grotesque, mass-murdering, Jew-despising evil. Germany is reverting to type.

[Darlin']

FOFLOL. Now, now, settle down and keep reading.

[AndrewC]

Sorry to broad-brush the German people, but I was responding in kind to the reported line. I was stationed in Germany in 1978-1979 in Kalkar. Germany is a beautiful country. Having written that, I feel that most Americans including me do not seek war but we do not shrink from it when it is necessary. History teaches us that it is now necessary. A further lesson illustrated in these times, is that deliberative bodies which are not answerable to people, should have no say in decisions which affect those people.

[tictoc]

Situation bad but not all hopeless.

The media - newspapers and broadcasters - are largely a lost cause: far too many socialistic (read: Marxist) journalists.

However, I see some stirrings of ordinary Germans waking up to the insane policies of their government.

Message boards on yahoo.de used to be heavily skewed to leftist, post-modern, multiculturalist, Green, marxist, anti-Jewish, anti-American posters.

Since last year, more and more decent middle-of-the-road and conservative Germans coming on line. We may be seeing the beginning of a "take back our country" movement.

There is yet hope.

[dfwgator]

Thanks to Germany America learned a valuable lesson about sitting out a war until it's too late. Never again!

[tictoc]

Hey, ich habe die Schnapszahl!

[rrrod]

agree 100%.......german opinion is worthless! they have caused more death and destruction than any gov or culture in history!

[kittymyrib]

If the Germans weren't so abjectly humorless, they would have known how hilarious the results of this poll are to Americans who haven't forgotten the history of the last hundred years. But along with their humorlessness, Germans unfortunately have the obtuse stubborness of believing they are always right...really unattractive qualities that they are again exhibiting in their foreign policy.

[STFrancis]

What it comes down to is this...

Clinton has been portrayed as this great leader by the media... and Bush like the second coming of the anti-christ....

Not much Anti-Americanism or nationalism... but a worrying about what war will bring... Schroeder trying to stay out of it against the advise of his foreign minister etc. doesn't help either. He must know something the rest of them don't. Plus, please note that it has gone downhill ever since Schroeder has been in power.... And with the last elections the CDU getting screwed out of power again by the greens it doesn't really help....

The CDU is beside itself and has already affirmed to Rummy that they would have been long on board.

The way it looks to me is that Schroeder is playing his own game right now...

There is a reason that his pollnumbers are the LOWEST of any chancellor EVER!!!!

[STFrancis]

All,

Please read the second part of my first reply again. What Reuters reported is not what is ACTUALLY written in the papers in Germany. It's at best a bad job of translating at worst a deliberate attempt of misrepresenting facts...!!!!

[WOSG]

It wont be an isolation of Germany, it will be an isolation of Schroeder and his short-sighted positions.
Michael may be quite happy with this.

Thankfully there has been tactical incompetence as well as strategic blundering, which will help expose the German and French views as hollow and mis-informed.

A New Iraqi Regime by March end, for sure.

As for the future, look for Blair to survive longer than Schroeder (I would hope), as a sign of who was politically more 'astute' in the long run.

[Cabbages and Kings]

No question there! you nailed it on the head!!!

[WOSG]

I was in Munich same time as Rummy (different business). I saw the demonstrators. Included in them was a group carrying the hammer and sickle flags and 'che gueverra' flags. These are not pacifists, they are anti-American leftist militants who are opposed to anything good that the USA tries to do.

I saw a Palestinian flag, but not a peep of concern about the violence of Pali terrorists, nor a peep about the world's #1 warmonger, Saddam Hussein, who managed to start 2 of the biggest wars since 1980: iran-iraq and gulf war I.

It is not pacifism but anti-Americanism that is driving German opposition. JMHO.