Posted on 02/25/2002 5:44:13 PM PST by Pokey78
A RIFT between Germany and Britain over how to conduct stage two of the war on terrorism opened up last night after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats criticised Tony Blair for backing military strikes against Iraq.
In a sign of tension between London and Berlin over the Prime Minister's hawkish line, Prof Gert Weisskirchen, the Social Democrat foreign policy spokesman in the German parliament, said Mr Blair's current position was "very regrettable".
Expressing the dominant view in Germany's governing party, he said he believed that it would be wrong for Mr Blair to depart, without consultation, from a policy agreed with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain at a meeting in London last November.
At that mini-summit in Downing Street, the Europeans decided to apply maximum pressure on Baghdad to comply with international weapons inspectors but to hold back on threats of military action.
Of particular concern in Berlin have been reports that Mr Blair and President Bush will finalise details of an attack on Iraq at a meeting in Washington in April.
"If these reports are right, I see a danger that these discussions will change the current European line, which is that Europe builds up threats but takes no military action, at least not before all other means have been tried," said Prof Weisskirchen.
"I see dangers on two levels.
"First, the international coalition against terrorism could be destroyed - it is possible that the Arabic members would not feel loyal to the coalition any more - and secondly, depending on the level of escalation, Israel could be threatened by Iraq. We have to discuss this carefully before any change is made."
Giving warning of a rift in Europe over the war on terrorism, Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, also appeared to have Mr Blair in mind when he spoke of the need for European Union partners to stick to the same policy.
"Only when Europe has a common foreign and security policy, as we have a single market and single currency, will we be taken seriously," he said. EU nations would be as powerful as America only if they were united.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, said yesterday he would meet Naji Sabri, Iraq's foreign minister, for talks in New York next month. Topics will include the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, a likely cause of war.
The arms inspectors, whose task is to check on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, left the country in December 1998, shortly before a US-British air assault, and have not been allowed to return since then.
Wow! Whenever were they loyal to us anyway?! Their actions and inactions have spoken well enough for their true feelings since 9/11.
This is typical German from Hitler's days: the thinking European should join the Euro party and not cause divisions. Or as Goebbles said it in his cartoon: "The thinking worker comes to Hitler," (A Communist and a Socialist are accusing each other of betraying the working class. )
"Only when Europe has a common foreign and security policy, as we have a single market and single currency, will we be taken seriously," he said. EU nations would be as powerful as America only if they were united.
Strength through hypernationalist Europe, or as Goebbles would say and reparaphrased by Fischer:
"The nation is the organic union of a people to protect its life. To be national is to affirm this union in word and deed. To be national has nothing to do with a form of government or a symbol. It is an affirmation of things, not forms. Forms can change, their content remains. If form and content agree, then the nationalist affirms both. If they conflict, the nationalist fights for the content and against the form. One may not put the symbol above the content. If that happens, the battle is on the wrong field and one's strength is lost in formalism. The real aim of nationalism, the nation, is lost."
And indeed, Fischer insists on agreement that European content should be above any political form, including truth or any symbol, such as the fight against terror. Hence we have de-facto Goebbelian affirmation of Europe by Fischer above any other principle, even truth.
For Fischer and Germans, it is fine to adopt a symbol such as the war on terror, that is, as long as it does not lead Europe into diverting Euro resources for mainly American interests after an American tragedy.
We have indeed our work cut out for us with the Germans and today's Europe.
Yes. Perhaps you can stir up things in Alsace-Lorraine to alleviate the situation.
The EU countries (except for the UK) are cowards. The French promised to send the US help figthing the Taliban, not one soldier arrived.
The Dutch: the same story.
The Germans: they wanted to join, but internal pressure (The Greens, lefties/commies) stopped the German amry. Also they do not have suitable transport and rely on other countries for that.
And the rest? The even never considered to help the US, not even NATO 'allies'.
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