Kevin made some comments and I’m responding to them here–go down to the Navel Gazing post comments for the original discussion. I think his comments posed good questions, though I strongly disagree with him.
I don’t see any evidence that Bush is acting on feelings towards Germany – it’s just Schroeder he can’t stand. But with the end of the cold war, is Germany truly an ally, or just another country we do business with?
Given German soldiers have only fought twice outside of Germany since the end of World War II and both of those wars were American led, I don’t understand why people insist that Germans aren’t allies of the United States. In fact, given the modern German public’s preference for non-military solutions, I find their record remarkably pro-US.
Being an ally doesn’t mean one is a sockpuppet for the other country, it means you share common interests and you work together for those interests. Many times you may not have common strategies and that is just part of the deal.
France is a different deal. During the Cold War France often stuck a stick in the spokes simply because they could. There are times we can work with France, but clearly, we don’t expect them to be there in many cases. Germany isn’t going to be there every time we want to do something because they don’t act as frequently as we do.
As far as not liking Schroeder, so what? The first Bush seemed to have a rather notable dislike of Yitzak Shamir, yet he still worked with him on most issues–except the settlements and Bush was right there. The problem with the current criticisms of Germany is that they are almost entirely ahistorical. Now, some in Germany have the same problem in relation to the US, but why would we exacerbate a relationship that is in our interest? Because we don’t like someone? If that is a criteria we want to go by, there aren’t many world leaders who like George Bush even amongst our stronger allies.
The problem isn’t entirely Schroeder, the vast majority of Germans including the Christian Democrats are against military action in Iraq. Schroeder’s people have exacerbated the problem, but the snits are turning into 3rd grade insults and barbs about who started the snarkiness. All of this was going on while seven Germans died in Afghanistan as part of NATO operations.
Again, if you can’t trust the leader of the country, can you trust that country with that leader, and if you can’t trust the country, can they be an ally?
What is it about Germany we can’t trust? That Schroeder wasn’t completely forthcoming regarding a resolution in the United Nations? I’m terribly confused because Germany was pretty damn clear about their views on Iraq throughout the buildup to the war.
I’m especially troubled if Bush is making policy based on personal relationships. Policy might be furthed by personal relationships, but it shouldn’t be made by those relationships. They have absolutely nothing to do with the security of the United States.