It's a classic tactic, all right
The New York Times covers the growing storm in Germany over Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin's comparison of President Bush's tactics with Hitler's ("Hitler Remark Shows U.S. as Issue in German Election"). Checking German papers led me to the source of the story, the Schwaebishes Tagblatt's Thursday article (Däubler-Gmelin: Bush will ablenken):

“Bush wants to distract from his domestic difficulties. That's a classic (beliebt: beloved) method. Hitler used to do that too." When some listeners reacted audibly, the SPD delegate clarified: "I have not equated Bush with Hitler."

Well, it depends what you mean by "equated", I guess. Actually, Ms. Däubler-Gmelin segued to her immortal words by way of pooh-poohing the other popular notion floating around, that this crisis is all about an American lust for Iraqi oil. So I suppose she was actually trying to give Dubya the benefit of the doubt.

What gets me about this is that when you compare Bush and Schroeder right now, you could much more easily make the case that it's Schroeder who's taking a page from old Adolf's playbook, not Bush. While it's not an open and shut case by any means, Hussein and Iraq are certainly real risks to take American lives by the thousands. You can argue about the likelihood of that happening, or alternatively about the likelihood of triggering the very attack we want to avoid. But no matter what you argue, it's undeniable that Hussein's Iraq is the working definition of a "rogue state" with a very worrisome track record of attacking countries, gassing people, what have you. To speak rather drily to Ms. Däubler-Gmelin, for a moment, it's not altogether irresponsible of Bush to point this out.

By way of contrast, Europeans, in no small part by virtue of their cleverly pious handwringing, are never ever going to be anyone's target, either Hussein's or Bin Laden's. Fine, good for them. I can sometimes wish I were a citizen of, say, Luxembourg, Germany, Andorra, or some other inconsequential country and know that my family and I are about as likely to be attacked by terrorists or nerve gas as we are to vacation on Mars next year. (And when the slaughter and gunfire gets too close to home, say, Bosnia, the "dumme Amis" will surely show up and put things to rights anyway.) So what's their worry, really? That they'll have to help out somehow? Rest assured, Americans are well aware that the Germanys, Luxembourgs, and Andorras of this world have no possible contribution to make. All the United States would really ask for is that they basically not get in the way too much if we were to decide for war against Iraq.

Thus, of the two leaders, it's actually Schroeder, not Bush, who's raising a foreign policy non-issue, and God knows Germany has plenty of domestic problems Schroeder needs to "ablenk" (distract) it from, from near double-digit unemployment to an educational system that Europeans themselves have (unbelievably) ranked behind the United States, to the still undigested eastern German states, provinces, economic redevelopment zones, incipient pogrom zones, whatever you want to call them. You can hardly blame Schroeder for having a rousing good go at someone who's safely far away and has more pressing matters to attend to. But it's a little cheeky to accuse someone of doing something you're really much better at yourself. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:56:00 AM -- |    

 

Gotcha, you bastard
Great news that Binalshibh, a key 9/11 plotter, has been caught (Arrests in Karachi Raising Hopes in Hunt for Al Qaeda). Mixed feelings that the Al-Jazeera reporter who interviewed Binalshibh a week ago fears for his life as a suspected snitch (WPost, 9/15/2002, "Arab Journalist Fears Al Qaeda Retaliation"). Also a relief -- for those of us who still care about relations with that country -- that Germany has apparently passed on any effort to extradite Binalshibh to its own jurisdiction. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:07:00 PM -- |