New German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking to improve her country's relations with President Bush, buoyed by an emerging accord designed to halt Iran's nuclear program.
Coming to a common agreement to actually halt Iran's nuclear drive is good as is the desire to have better German-American relations. But there is a little thing like a good chunk of the German people and media to overcome. Their reaction to some recent news about the Iraq War is not helpful to say the least.
German intelligence may have helped us out in Iraq in 2003. This is apparently causing a furor inside Germany.
What did Germany do?
"There was a decision from the German government that two agents would remain in Iraq to gather information. There was a regular exchange of information with the US side," foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said Friday.
And what are the critics saying about it?
"Did Germany take part in the war in Iraq?" Der Tagesspiegel newspaper asked in a frontpage headline.
Amazing.
I am amazed that the people of a so-called ally might be upset that they actually helped their ally defeat a genocidal dictator.
I am further amazed that contributing two agents might be considered "taking part" in the war. (Yet our opponents of the war deny we had any allies at all in the war--you know, the "unilateral" charge?)
In what way are they an ally? Can we really repair this relationship in time to do something useful to halt Tehran?
