Something is rotten in the state of Germany. His name is Gerhard Schrder. He is a liar. He is a backstabber. He is the Chancellor of Germany. A little over a year ago, Germany and America were very close allies. Americans drove around in BMWs and noshed on bratwurst. Germans listened to Madonna while donning blue jeans. Their respective governments shared just as close a relationship.
Recently, this cordial rapport has turned icy. When Gerhard Schrder took office for his second term this past week, President Bush refused to congratulate him on his reelection. Why did the wienerschnitzel spoil?
It was all due to the selfishness and ineptness of Germany's Schrder. For the past few weeks, Schrder was in the midst of campaigning for reelection. He did not, however, take into consideration the stiff competition posed by Edmund Stoiber, a Christian Democrat. Stoiber pointed out major flaws in Schrder's government -- his failure to lower unemployment, for instance. Schrder promised to lower absolute unemployment by a half million jobs. In fact, unemployment has increased and has consistently remained higher than that of France and England. In Berlin, Schrder's lair, the unemployment rate is an astronomical 14 percent. Keep in mind, the unemployment rate of 1933 Germany teetered at 17 percent.
Stoiber also harped on the government's lenient stance on immigration. Germany has one of the most relaxed immigration policies in the European Union. The Germans, already frightened that their country is losing its cultural identity, now compete with immigrants who are willing to work for a paltry salary. Germany's immigration policy, established to attract skilled workers, inadvertently attracted international criminals. United States intelligence experts believe that thousands of terrorists are currently inhabiting the German countryside. In fact, three of the Sept. 11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta, were residents of Hamburg. Even worse, these terrorists collect unemployment checks from the profligate German social welfare system, thank you, Otto Von Bismarck. What irks America, and rightfully so, is the sluggishness of the German authorities in apprehending suspected terrorists. These terrorist cells are still functional; they pose a dire threat to the West. In fact, the German Justice Department withheld vital evidence about Zacarias Moussaoui regarding the World Trade Center attack to prevent his execution. Keep in mind the death penalty is outlawed in Germany, as well as in all of the European Union. Nonetheless, it is not the job of Germany's judicial system to impose its ideological thoughts upon another country.
Gerhard Schrder was behind in the polls. Unable to explain the floundering economy to his constituency, he refocused the election issue to everyone's favorite scapegoat, save England: America. Soon enough, Schrder began to criticize Bush's scheme to attack Iraq. This red herring issue, combined with Stoiber's garbled verbiage, allowed Schrder to regain his point deficit. Emboldened by his initial success, Schrder soon declared that he would not let the American military use German bases to launch attacks upon Saddam's evil empire. His chest-pounding didn't end there. Schrder emerged as the world's anti-American leader, snubbing Bush's war plans as an "adventure." The only war Schrder endorsed was his personal one: a war of words against Bush and the United States. He enlisted his ministers to step up the barrage of verbal trash against America. The Justice Minister compared Bush to the heinous Adolf Hitler. A slight that would eventually force her resignation, but only after the damage was done.
What should America do in response to Germany's brickbats and umbrage? So far, Bush has decided to slight Schrder by a missed congratulatory call. Rumsfeld declined to meet with a German NATO representative. However, Bush should do more. He owes it to the American people -- stand up to those who affront America. The United States must stop being the world's punching bag. How can Gerhard Schrder, the leader of a Western country, sacrifice the trust of an ally for individual gains? Its disgusting that such a close ally would treat America this way. What is worse is that we are allowing this to happen.
