DO YOU EVER FIRE BOMB YOUR FRIENDS?

GERMAN POISON (Michael Barone, 9/26/02)

"Between friends, there can be factual differences, but they should not be personalized, particularly between close allies," Schroeder said after his narrow victory became clear. But the differences are not factual; they are differences over policy, differences between a policy seriously arrived at and one adopted cavalierly amid the hurly-burly of a campaign. And by retaining in his government and standing for election with a minister who compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, Schroeder himself has personalized the differences. Germany will probably continue to cooperate in the war on terrorism. It has done admirable work rounding up terrorists in Germany itself and has expressed a willingness for German troops to take a lead role in peacekeeping in Afghanistan. But so long as Gerhard Schoerder is chancellor and George W. Bush is president, the United States will not consider Germany a reliable ally or even a reliable interlocutor. Schrder would do well not to sit around waiting for a telephone call from George W. Bush.

From whence arises the odd notion that Germany and America are friends? After all, in the last eighty years we've fought and defeated Germans in three world wars. Isn't the reason behind keeping Germany in NATO and the EU the old line from Don Corleone: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Posted by Orrin Judd at September 28, 2002 11:01 AM