[martin_fierro]

History will prove him a fool.

[Numbers Guy]

We don't need German approval or German aid for the war with Iraq, so Schroeder winning won't affect the U.S. much at all.

It will affect Germany, greatly. Schroeder's burned some major bridges here, especially given his condescending "apology" to Bush after his Justice Minister's vile remark.

You know how sometimes someone angers you enough that you just don't bother with him anymore except where politeness requires some interaction? That's going to be the U.S. position with Schroeder's German government. It won't be worth the waste of time to yank our troops or anything, we just won't give a rip about what the Germans think on any level, on any issue.

[Stultis]

and rebuild ties with the United States

Uh, yeah, whatever. We'll get back to you on that. Don't call us, we'll call you.

Enjoy your irrelevance, Gerry.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Latest addition to W's Axis of Evil list: Deutschland.

[FoundersRWatching]

How about a nice little economic boycott of German products!! According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Dept. of Commerce, in 2000 the U.S. imports from Germany were $58.7 billion while exports to Germany were $29.2 billion. Gosh let's hit old Scrotum... er Schroeder in the pocket. May be a good way for us to "vote" in their election. Vote with your $

[veronica]

This is good. The more Americans see this perfidy from Germany, the less they will care whether Bush gets support from these so-called "allies" in his quest to take out Saddam. :) Unilateralism is in, baby.

[white trash redneck]

Pull our troops out of Germany. It's not like we need them there anymore in case the Russkies invade.

[Billthedrill]

Schroeder seems a bit befuddled by the intensity of the U.S. reaction, and I'll tell you why - under the previous administration, whose ideological and demographic makeup more closely matches Schroeder's than the current one, unsubtle anti-American rhetoric was blown off as something that all sophisticates indulged in, something that was pretty much a given among the chic and leftist. Beating up on common external foes was a straight ticket to that voting block - what was the lady's felicitous phrase, "even Hitler did it..." (I've forgotten her name - didn't she used to be a minister in his government?) Offending mainstream Americans was a sport with no risk whatever because it was understood that it was all among friends who followed a "bigger" vision than mere nationalism.

It isn't like that now, and that seems to be confusing a lot of people, Schroeder not the least - I'd say it confused bin Laden and it seems to be confusing Saddam as well. It may be just me, but I get the strong impression that part of this confusion led the confused to conclude that we'd whine about 3000 murdered people for a few days and then back to business as usual. After a year they still don't get it, and they find it annoying that we seem to be taking this more seriously than they are. Bush isn't Clinton, and Afghanistan isn't Vietnam - neither is Iraq - and the precepts of the middle third of the previous century are as outmoded and archaic as buggy whips.

[exmarine]

Let's pull all our forces out of Germany and leave Germany to the sissies and liberals. This country is no longer our friend.

[irish guard]

I'm really glad (sarcasm) we bailed his a$$ out of a jam when we took care of the mess in Serbia a few years back!! Things were just a bit too dicey for the Germans to get involved. You know, lots of relatives and economics....that sort of thing. So the Germans left it up the the Americans to help them deal with the Balkan mess. Notice how he is returning the favor by coming to our aid in Iraq??? Yea, me neither.

What a jag.

[alethia]

Unless there's a national security threat, we should pull our bases from Germany and put them in Poland. This type of diatribe is ridiculous.