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German Position on Iraq could be Destabilizing for Allies
Friday, September 6, 2002
By John Vinocur
International Herald Tribune

More than six months ago, according to a German newspaper account that has gone unchallenged, Schroeder himself said that failure to commit a German anti-nuclear and chemical warfare unit stationed in Kuwait to even a unilateral American strike against Iraq might open a German-American crisis with consequences that could last from 30 to 50 years. Exactly that choice not to help the Americans has now been made.

MUNICH, Germany -- IHT
For the first time since 1945, Germany's leadership has moved to totally separate its policy from that of the United States on an issue of war and peace. The subject is Iraq and the decision is taking shape in the tense context of national elections later this month.

Unlike any of the United States' other NATO allies, the German government of Social Democrats and Greens has chosen to reject any military participation, even with United Nations and European Union mandates, in an American-led strike against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

As the campaign progresses, and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer reiterate daily their commitment to a position that isolates Germany from the United States and its other North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. The German choice takes on the potential of becoming a profound and destabilizing development for both the United States and Europe.

With Edmund Stoiber, the Christian Democrat candidate, holding a similar but ultimately less inflexible position, and Fischer claiming 80 percent backing within German public opinion, the issue appears to be driven by domestic political calculation. As such, it raises questions about Germany's capacity and stated ambitions to become a leading international player while remaining a committed ally of the United States.

Fischer rejected this analysis in an interview this week, saying he saw no real damage to Germany's international position or relations with the Americans. Rather than an election tactic, he said, the German position reflected the intimate convictions he and Schroeder hold about the great dangers of an invasion of Iraq.

At the same time though, during a bus tour of Bavaria, he appeared visibly uncomfortable with the phrase -- "the German way" -- that Schroeder employed in his explanation of why Germany was taking a position likely to unsettle, confound or vex its friends. That phrase carries a historical echo of Kaiser Wilhelm and the German Empire.
(More: IHT.com News Source)
2002 © The International Herald Tribune.

Dan