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Subject:
German CDU leader tap dances on Schroeder's head over Iraq
Topolino
2/14/2003 9:27:57 AM
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| It's nice to know that some Germans don't want their foreign policy sub-contracted to Paris. This Angela Merkel sounds like a force to be reckoned with.
This is from the Wall Street Journal On-line, so the link won't work unless you're a paid subscriber.
link
Mr. Chancellor, Listen to Us!
Excerpts of speech given Thursday at the Bundestag by CDU leader Angela Merkel, in which she addressed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder directly:
Today millions of people in Germany are watching us and listening to this debate. They are concerned about whether we politicians, government and opposition alike, can lead them with intelligence and wisdom through this difficult time, through the conflict in Iraq and through the battle against terrorism.
The people of this country don't want war. Those who are sitting in this hall also don't want a war. However, I say to you, for weeks you have been on the wrong track. Your recent speech in the Goslar town square, where you deemed it necessary to declare publicly that under no circumstances would it be appropriate to ensure that U.N. Resolution 1441 would be backed up, has not made a war in Iraq less improbable, but rather more likely, because you eased the pressure on Saddam Hussein. That is the crux of the disagreement, and you are dodging it. Now you are trying with a bizarre, dilettantish middleway to come out of this corner.
You must again remember what happened at the recent Munich conference [when a German plan was leaked to the press, please see our editorial]. There stood our foreign minister, who knew nothing and a defense minister who said that we would be informed about the plan by you today. A missing report, Mr. Chancellor! I have heard nothing of it.
The defense minister of France looked on amazed, and nobody had spoken to the Portuguese defense minister and the American defense secretary, all assembled there. It is that which we criticize, Mr. Chancellor, and I believe we are right to do so.
Mr. Chancellor, we are debating here the question of how can you, in a union of friends, set out your opinions to Germany's best advantage. You can't do that making pronouncements without discussing them, and shutting off participation in an alliance without telling any of the others. Doing that you weaken the European Union, NATO, the U.N. Security Council and the work of the inspectors. Because you have done what you have done, you have brought on international political damage.
Mr. Chancellor, you are trying to give the impression that you are of the same mind as France and other nations. The great difference is that the President of the French Republic has saved his diplomatic breathing room. You have given yours away, and in doing so have led Germany back into a category of lightweights.
Mr. Chancellor, since the federal election campaign you have stirred up very subtly a certain anti-Americanism. You vowed in the campaign: I won't go on adventures. What could that mean? With whom in the world were these adventures to be done?
U.S. Senator John McCain clearly pointed out during the recent security conference in Munich -- which you probably ought to have attended -- that he takes seriously what Germans and Europeans think. The Senator then asked us to put ourselves in the psychological mindset in which the people of the United States find themselves.
After September 11, they find themselves in a phase in which they are threatened and targeted. I advise all urgently and together to search for solutions in unity, instead of trying to walk in our own "other way."
Let me quote: "All together, we Germans, who were able to rebuild after two world wars and to find peace and self-confidence with the help and solidarity of our American friends and partners, now have an opportunity to pay them back. That means, and I say this unmistakably, participation in military operations for the defense of freedom and human rights, expressly for the establishment of stability and security."
Mr. Chancellor, those were your words after September 11. But today, you refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of U.N. resolutions. On this point we vigorously oppose you, Mr. Chancellor.
You have said today that Iraq doesn't pose a threat. I remember that Iraq has attacked Israel with scud missiles. What is our responsibility, given the background of German history, to the state of Israel? And why has your government actually purchased 80 million doses of smallpox vaccine if you believe that there's only a minor threat? What do you say to these questions? You must fully inform the people, Mr. Chancellor.
The first priority must be finally making, along with allies, a united decision against dictators. That is the task before which we all stand.
The truth is that you cannot get yourself out of your own trap. Therefore, I reproach you for bad leadership. This fault manifests itself |
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