THE WHIP HAND:

German defense minister denies report US has asked for missiles (Agence France-Presse, Nov 24, 2002)

German Defense Minister Peter Struck on Sunday denied a report that the United States had asked Berlin to make anti-aircraft missiles available for a war in Iraq.

"The report is false," Struck said of a front-page article in Sunday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoting senior government officials.

The newspaper said Washington had asked Germany to prepare to provide an unspecified number of Patriot missiles as part of the mobilization in the region for possible strikes against Iraq.

The officials quoted said that Washington had not specified where it wanted the missiles deployed.

But they said that request would be difficult to refuse if it was intended to defend Israel or NATO ally Turkey.

Maybe when Mr. Schroeder and his cronies were preening around calling George W. Bush a Hitler, it might have occurred to them that they were angering someone who has great power to humiliate them. By requests like this, Mr. Bush can force Germany to either de facto participate in the Iraq War, whether they want to or not, or make them truly break with the rest of Europe and be isolated in the midst of suddenly hostile neighbors, a prospect that always terrifies Germans. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2002 8:41 AM