Friday, September 13, 2002

All American troops should be withdrawn from Germany and the bases closed (how's your eceony doing now Herr Chancellor?). They are free to criticise and whine all they want but it is going too far. In Schroeder's bid to outdo Chretien and even France. Shroeder has made clear that he may ban US overflights in a war against Iraq.

Ten days before Germany’s general election, opposition to a war on Iraq appeared to be spinning out of control yesterday when left-wing Social Democrats said the Government should ban US air bases in Germany taking part in any attack.

Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, whose Social Democrats have surged in support since he came out in opposition to President Bush, refused to rule out the possibility of an overflight ban. “This question will be resolved when the occasion arises,” he said in a crisp, open-ended answer to Stern magazine.

Geuss that invocation of Article V. So just like Kofi Schroeder now changes tactics when it looks like his old position about nouniltaeral action be taken. But not only does he outdo France and Canada, he outpaces Kofi by intimating that even with a coalition and UN approval he may just decide not to support us. Not only should our troops be withdrawn, in the future any German offers for assistance in any venture should be flatly denied.

Some Social Democrats, speaking in a private briefing to reporters, made plain that Germany should not allow an “unacceptable” war to be waged from its soil. “We have said we want no part of a war that aims to topple Saddam Hussein, that we will not finance it, that we will withdraw our anti-contamination unit from Kuwait,” said one prominent leftwinger on condition of anonymity. “The logical next step is that we exclude the use of US airbases in Germany.”

What a posturing group of whiners. It must give the NY Times the warm fuzzies.

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