"Fearless Leader" Merkel sounds like she's bowing to pressure. Sometimes, regardless of public opinion, one must stick to their guns, ala Tony Blair.
Schroeder taps into the latest trend to redefine his image when it means improved "Waehlergunst". Some pages of Schroeder's playbook seem to have stuck on Merkel. As I said I think, he's a tar baby.
"They will fail"; warnings of, "not to meet the US with mistrust" (how about, "we can trust them"?), while not necessarily anti-American, don't evoke oodles of warm-fuzzies in me. She can keep her pep-talk to herself until the war is over AFAIC.
longjack
That´s the problem: They cannot keep their pep-talk to themselves: they are politicians! They are asked every s#it and sometimes they must give an answer. So they tell them "uh, not making faults now, US should be careful, do everything to support and strengthen the UN, blah blah". They´re not like us who we don´t have to express our opinion. Merkel still keeps her pro-war course, but she steps down in criticizing their opponents.