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ALIK KEPLICZ/AP |
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MAKING A POINT:
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld refused to meet with his German counterpart, referring to him only as 'that person.'
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Posted Sunday, Sep. 29, 2002; 1.58 p.m. BST
Fischer was careful during the campaign not to mimic Schröder's tone. But the Chancellor himself seemed deaf to the alarm raised by his remarks in Washington. According to a German official, Schröder just doesn't get Bush's style — the funny nicknames, the emphasis on unwavering loyalty. Schröder doesn't take campaign rhetoric personally, so he didn't expect Bush to either.
Well, he was wrong. Over the past month, the White House has been itching to bash Schröder for turning Iraq into a campaign issue — especially since the Administration let Schröder know that he didn't have to take a public position on Iraq before election day. Däubler-Gmelin's alleged remarks gave the Administration the perfect excuse to strike. "Nobody is going to pretend that the excesses didn't harm the government-to-government relationship," says one senior Administration official. "When there are important developments, Chancellor Schröder will not be the first, second or third person the President will consult."
That's a shame, since according to a diplomatic source close to both Bush and Schröder the President really liked the Chancellor — until this summer, at least. "The President values the personal side of diplomacy," this source says. "All spring long, everyone on both sides was surprised by how close these two had become. Now, that is unlikely ever to be recreated."
Despite this initial rapport, Washington also attributes the German stance to "Eurowimp" syndrome, the Administration's widely held view that the Europeans (apart from Tony Blair, of course) are unreliable allies in the fight against terrorism. Fischer is adamant that this analysis is incorrect, pointing to the fact that Germany's spd-Green coalition staked its survival on supporting American military action in Afghanistan — and that he himself took enormous flak for cajoling the historically pacifist Greens into supporting that decision.
Since all foreign troop deployments must be approved by the Bundestag, Schröder and Fischer called a vote of confidence on the German contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom in Nov. 2001. They narrowly won that vote, but if they hadn't the coalition would have collapsed. "We put our government at risk," Fischer says. "And now our soldiers are in dangerous missions with American soldiers" in Afghanistan. Proof enough, he thinks, of German loyalty, and a message he hopes to deliver soon during a trip to Washington. "We will work very hard to improve relations and get back to normal business," Fischer says. "This is in our common interests."
It's not clear which of Washington's interests are being served by publicly prolonging Schröder's pain. But clearly much of the Administration's initial wrath was personal. Bush practices a visceral brand of politics, often relying on gut instinct rather than the more cerebral stratagems of statecraft. "He gets mad and he just stays mad," says one senior Administration official.
But Schröder's campaign tactics were more than just a personal affront. They represented a backstabbing ethic that Bush loathes: he thinks it is precisely when the going gets tough that you stand by your friends. "This was an outrage," says the Administration official. Initially, "it wasn't about getting something from the Germans. But do we have a card we can now play? Yes." That card may be "Go directly to jail." As U.S. preparations for a war with Iraq heat up, the Administration may use the spat as a cudgel to keep the German leader quiet. "They want Schröder in a box protectively," says a top White House aide.
The Bush team spent most of the week letting the Germans know the exact dimensions of that box. In addition to Rumsfeld's rebuffs, there are rumors that Bush has put the kibosh on meetings between U.S. officials and their German counterparts — though FBI director Robert Mueller did meet in Berlin with German security officials — and that Bush may decline a bilateral meeting with Schröder at the November NATO summit in Prague.
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