WHO'D WANT A LEADER WHO WOULDN'T LIE FOR HIS COUNTRY?:

Germany's Secret Aid for America's War: Revelations that information from German intelligence agents in Baghdad was passed along to Washington while former chancellor Gerhard Schröder publicly condemned the US-led war in Iraq have caused an uproar in Berlin. The opposition wants a parliamentary investigation. But was it hypocrisy or simply political pragmatism? (Marc Young, 1/17/06, Der Spiegel)

Considering Schröder's center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens was re-elected in 2002 in part due to its strong anti-war stance, the allegations could be particularly damaging to both the former chancellor's legacy and the current foreign minister's political future. Amid the sparse furnishings of his office, a visibly annoyed Steinmeier says the categorical opposition of the Schröder administration to the war in Iraq is now unfairly being twisted into some sort of complicity.

"We never said back then we were breaking off ties to the USA and were leaving NATO," says Steinmeier. "We just said we would not take part in this war."

So what was it? Hypocrisy at the highest levels or simply pragmatic realpolitik? Certainly, it would be naive to believe that just because Schröder refused to back US President George W. Bush's plans for invading Iraq that all military and intelligence ties between Berlin and Washington would be cut. But did Schröder lie to voters?

Any issue that isn't worth being hypocritical about can't be very important.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 18, 2006 10:24 AM