[tictoc]

A successor to Hitler is about to appear.

Never say never, but for now and for the foreseeable future, the fact is the Germans have been defanged and neutered. They don't know who they are and what they want, so they have pretty much surrendered their foreign policy making to Paris.

The Franco-German project is going to end in tears and mutual recriminations. Germany will then come knocking on Washington's door, hat in hand, begging to be let in. It will be important at that point for the U.S. not to be vengeful but magnanimous, even if Germany does not deserve it.

[WOSG]

Germany is lucky in that America doesnt hold grudges and has a short-term memory. This lapse will be forgiven if corrected soon enough.

OTOH, you *will* need new leaders, as Schroeder has destroyed his credibility in the eyes of Bush, and Bush will be here until 2009. (Good thing too, if you listen to the dregs that are running on Democratic side, it's pathetic, and their best candidates, Like Gephardt and Lieberman, will be rejected due to overly sensisble policies on Iraq that the Democrat Leftists cant abide. They will probably picked a more leftwing candidate who will lose big bot Bush. The lesson: Schroeder blew it!)