Condi Rice : "It's best to ignore" Schröder, Fischer's Past a Problem. [German News Article]

"FOCUS-Online" ^ | May 24, 2003 | "FOCUS-Online"

[wimpycat]

4 entries found for diplomacy.
To select an entry, click on it. Main Entry: di·plo·ma·cy
Pronunciation: d&-'plO-m&-sE
Function: noun
Date: 1796
1 : the art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations
2 : skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility : TACT

[Michael81Dus]

Exactly wimpycat.

And now tell me in which way Fischer (not uncle Gerhard) acted not diplomatic.

[longjack]

And now tell me in which way Fischer (not uncle Gerhard) acted not diplomatic.

2 : skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility : TACT

But that, he said, was not argument enough for going to war. "My generation learned you must make a case, and excuse me, I am not convinced," the Green politician shouted in English while directing his gaze, teacher-like, over silver half-moon frames, at the United States defence secretary.

"That is my problem," he said. "I cannot go to the public and say, 'these are the reasons', because I don't believe in them."

Mr Rumsfeld maintained a grim face throughout, gazing at Mr Fischer through a tropical plant so that, as one observer put it, "he looked like a tiger in the jungle, ready to pounce".

The confrontation could go down as one of the defining moments of this crisis. But it was also, said commentators, a moment that ensured that American and German relations have little chance of recovering soon from their chronic post-war low.

The Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Joseph Lieberman, warned at the conference that the rift - recognisable even before the Fischer outburst - threatened the future of Nato.

2 : skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility : TACT

longjack

[Michael81Dus]

Excuse me, but if expressing his opinion is arousing hostility, you were right. But it is not. Hostility and differences are two things. From his words noone had to feel offended or insulted, and that´s what I call diplomnatic.

And now I don´t want to talk about this crap anymore. Fischer is a diplomat, and I´ll not defend him all the time.

[wimpycat]

I don't know if you're familiar with "diplo-speak", the language diplomats use which on the surface may sound innocuous, but in reality conveys a more "honest", shall we say, meaning, which is never lost on the intended recipient of the words. For example, you might hear a world leader describe his conversation with another world leader as "candid" or "frank". Anytime leaders engage in "frank" or "candid" discussions, it is safe to assume that the diplomatic veneer was temporarily removed. Thus, if Powell were ever to say he had a "frank" or "candid" discussion with Fischer, the conversation would likely sound like this: "Listen you little pissant...don't think for a moment that the U.S. is going to soon forget your backstabbing behavior."

So, in diplo-speak, when Mr. Fischer said publicly and pointedly in English while looking at Mr. Rumsfeld, "My generation learned you must make a case, and excuse me, I am not convinced..." the translation of those words is that he was calling the U.S. Secretary of Defense a DAMN LIAR. (A "damn liar" is worse than being just a liar.) If you can't see through the diplomatic language to see what diplomats are really saying, you need to look and listen more closely.

Fischer's intent towards the U.S. with those words was indeed hostile.

[Michael81Dus]

Oh, finally!!
I was telling you all the time that Fischer speaks the diplo-language (while Schröder does not) - that´s what makes a diplomat! Of course I know what stands behind these words, but that´s diplomacy!!

[CatoRenasci]

Fischer has not changed. If you think so, you are naiive.

[Michael81Dus]

Oh, you want to tell me that Fischer still wants to abolish our free-democratic-based constitutional system?
Surely not! Fischer has become a democrat - and someone who can speak the diplo-speak very well.

[AM2000]

Ok, so Fischer's a diplomat who speaks diplo-speak real well. Excuse me, but so effing what?

The fact of the matter is he publicly called Secretary Rumsfeld a liar. Sure, not in those words but we all know what he meant, right? Who cares about the diplomatic facade... it's the intent that's the point here. He could have not supported the war and kept his mouth shut. But no... he had to be vocal about his opposition, which puts him and his boss (Schroeder) firmly against the US. That makes them... you guessed it, the enemy.

[CatoRenasci]

Fischer was part of the Gramascian march through the institutions of the 1970s German Marxist youth. In my assessment, he remains commited to the anti-democratic socialist revolutionary goals he espoused in the 1970s. That he has learned "diplo-babble" well is hardly evidence of Fischer's reform, only of his cleverness. Neither he nor Schroeder have any integrity.

Fischer and Schroeder are not gentlemen, and could never be. Once, Germany was governed by gentlemen. Unfortunately, they lacked nerve, and so we end of with men of the Pöbel such as these.

As my first German teacher put it she left Germany in 1935 weil die Nazis solche schlecte Sitten hatten.

[Michael81Dus]

So what?

That´s it. My point is, that Fischer is a democrat and diplomat. That he is not the stone-throwing anarchy-loving Commie anymore. I never claimed he was not the enemy.

[Michael81Dus]

Yep, but I repeat it again and again: he is a democrat and diplomat. I never said he was a gentleman or someone with manners.

[CatoRenasci]

Where is the evidence that Fischer is a democrat? That he has participated in the electoral system is no evidence: communists do that when they lack the power to do away with free elections. I have seen nothing to convince me Fischer has sincerely renounced his former Marxism. Once a commie, always a commie, absent a sincere repudiation of Marxims and active anticommunist behaviour.

As to his being a diplomat, appointing him as one does not make him a diplomat other than in the most meaningless sense of the word. There is nothing diplomatic about him.

Fisher is not even fit to act as valet to Präsident Freiherr von Weizsäcker, who was a gentleman.

[wimpycat]

Well, then, you agree Fischer was calling Rumsfeld a liar. So you understand now why everybody is pissed off, and you won't go around saying Fischer wasn't being hostile when he clearly was. Whew! I'm glad we got that cleared up.

[NeoCaveman]

Condi kicking German butt.

[Michael81Dus]

So when did Fischer called Rumsfeld a liar and when did I say that I agree with your conclusion? It is false.

[wimpycat]

You're being deliberately obtuse.

[Al Simmons]

I don't dislike your citizenship - just your leftist ideology. And "Dude", I have a third of a century to go before (God Willing), I join the 70+ crowd.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Micheal , thank you for your arguments, but it is with no pleasure that I contemplate the fact that you probably represent the least leftist, most realpolitik spectrum of German opinion. The European reaction was to treat Austria as a less than sovereign state, cutting them off from bi-lateral relationships demanding Haider out. For American leadership to expess its fundemental inability to deal the current German leadership in matters of the greatest import, is not the same at all. We are hoping the German electorate will change the leadership. Admitting 20 million Aussies was the equivalent of 7 or 8 new Massachutess's to America. We try to remember what you are up against over there.

[Michael81Dus]

It is deeply inconsistent, to reject the current German leadership after the Iraq crisis but having played best friends before August 2002. The US Administration has accepted the German leadership (and they have to, since it is elected by the people and represents me and my fellow-citizen).

Of course you can hope for a change. I do so, too - but unlike me, the US officials shpuld do that silent. I said in my posts above that chosing its leadership is the right of every independant people, therefore interfering is forbidden for all foreigners. I would never dare to judge on who should become US president - this is exclusively YOUR right. That has to do with respect. So I would be thankful if Condolezza Rice will hold her breath and think before saying such (even if all people know what she thinks).