Thank You For Your Lecture, Wolfgang...

Here's a completely non-arrogant, balanced, nuanced assessment of the different political styles of the US and Germany, by the German ambassador to the US, Wolfgang Ischinger, as quoted in the current issue of the New Yorker:

"As older societies, we tend to think of ourselves as more experienced in the way societies evolve, and we tend to be skeptical of Americans who seem to think that if you believe hard enough, and you muster enough resources, you can change the world...In the last year or so, as we've engaged in discussions about the transformation of the Middle East and democracy, I have told my American friends that the region in this world that has seen the most transformation and change is Central and Eastern Europe--without shedding a drop of blood. So don't preach to us. And don't think transformative change will work according to mechanistic rules. This is very complicated. Changing the way people think often has to do with religious and cultural issues--we tend to think of them as long-term, and Americans think, Let's solve the problem in the next four years!"

Read the devastating critique of Ischinger's remark at The Belgravia Dispatch. BTW, this smart guy Ischinger is no stranger to this blog...

(Hat tip John T.)

Comments

[slickdpdx]

I guess he doesn't remember the Pershing missles. Or all those U.S Soldiers.

[John S]

I guess he hasn't spent much time in the U.S. I don't see that any country has transformed itself and coped with more change without blodshed in the last 50 years than the U.S.

[Trish]

It still amazes me that some politicians in Germany think that the Europeans pulled down the wall and defeated communism all by themselves. I guess I am an American with a big EGO and am incapable of seeing who and what I really am.

What Mr. Isinger and his ilk do not seem to understand is that we Americans feel that we want to live in freedom during our lifetime and feel that others most likely would prefer that too. But then again I guess I am not nuanced enough, nor patient enough. I will never forget the faces of the couples at the Berlin Wall the night it fell, you saw tears of happiness and tears of sorrow - where did all those years go - realizing they could never be recovered. It is nice that Mr. Isinger can enjoy his freedom because of American blood, why he feels that others are less worthy I do not want to understand.

[Charles]

Does anyone know if Wolfgang Ischinger wears a monocle? I was just wondering.

[Joe]

Gee, very typical.

I just loved the following comment..

"...we tend to think of them as long-term, and Americans think, Let's solve the problem in the next four years!"

Yes, the Germans have historically preferred to think in Thousand Year increments. And the Soviets sure had us beat with their Five Year Plans.

Funny, I don't recall either of those strategies working out very well.

That had to be made by one of those stupid Americans....

[Joe]

The comments posted on this site reference to Wolfgang's interview are interesting.

[poguemahone]

I must say I wish Chirac would give some advice to this fellow

"shut up"

[Joe]

What is interesting is ...

Admission that Germany IS "old Europe"

Everything is complex.

Where have we all heard these two before????

[Sandy P]

OT: And you wonder why we laugh at you nanny-staters, via Bros. Judd:

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005

Doctors seek kitchen knife ban

EDWARD BLACK

Key points
• Doctors claim long kitchen knives serve no purpose except as weapons
• 55 out of 108 homicide victims in Scotland were stabbed last year
• Police superintendents say a ban would be difficult to enforce

Key quote
"Many assaults are impulsive, often triggered by alcohol or misuse of other drugs, and the long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available, potentially lethal weapon, particularly in the domestic setting" - Dr Emma Hern, writing in British Medical Journal

Story in full LONG, pointed kitchen knives should be banned as part of a concerted effort to reduce the terrible injuries and deaths caused by stabbing attacks, doctors warned today.

Accident and emergency medics claim the knives serve no useful purpose in the kitchen but are proving deadly on the streets of Britain, with the doctors claiming the knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

The doctors claimed they had consulted leading chefs who said the knives were not needed for cooking - a claim disputed by chefs contacted by The Scotsman....

[PacRim Jim]

Americans aim high and sometimes fail. Germans never aim and never fail. They are happy to criticize those who do, however.

[Jewels (AKA Julian)]

And there is a problem with wanting to solve a problem in a concise, efficent manner?

Screw Nuance. Sometimes going in with a plan while swinging gets a lot more done

[Paul from Florida]

PacRim Jim,

True, but also remember that Ischinger is a life long bureaucrat, government functionary, and more universally, a dedicated Lefty. All that in itself would be sufficient to explain his dribble. Throw in a little ignorance, lefty high esteem, and least we forget the great and unspoken force in events, plain old low wattage intellect.

[Neokomplott]

I think Ischinger is perfectly right - tell me the countries
1. In which U.S. intervention helped in creating a democracy.
2. ...that remained stable after U.S. withdrawal.
3. ...that never had a democracy before.

[Cousin Dave]

Light bulb? What do you mean, you invented the light bulb? You can't just go off and invent light bulbs. It's taken us a century to get the candle approved. Trust us. We're a more experienced society and we know these things.

Too bad Kafkha and Ayn Rand never heard the word "nuance", because it's exactly the sort of thing they were writing about.

[Rob]

@Neokomplott:

" tell me the countries
1. In which U.S. intervention helped in creating a democracy."

Why focus on interventions? West-Europe wouldn't be free and democratic without the protection of the USA since WW2. East-Europe wouln't be free and democratic today without Reagans politics.

"2. ...that remained stable after U.S. withdrawal."

All european states, including Germany, France, Italy,... ? (Please don't tell me Germany is still occupied...)

3. ...that never had a democracy before."

Why is this important? But ok: Japan? South-Korea? Taiwan?

[Doug in Colorado]

Personal for Ambassador Ischinger.
Dear Ambassador,
You are quoted from the New York Times as follows. Does Germany actually have an ambassador who is truly so ignorant as make such an absurd statement or is it willful, deliberate and criminal slander on your part? For all those of every nation who shed blood in bringing this "bloodless" change about, all those who died in training accidents while training to defend Europe, all those who died in the Soviet Union because they disagreed with their government and the evil empire that it anchored, all those who died in those eastern european countries as they tried again and again to break away and find their freedom, and all those who died at the foot of the Berlin Wall, all those who by now would have died and been placed in mass graves in Iraq...How can you turn your back on them...are they just statistics to you? Bloodless, indeed...You, sir, are worse than a fool...you deliberately refuse to see the dead...and the blood they have shed.

From the Times: "As older societies, we tend to think of ourselves as more experienced in the way societies evolve, and we tend to be skeptical of Americans who seem to think that if you believe hard enough, and you muster enough resources, you can change the world."

"In the last year or so, as we've engaged in discussions about the transformation of the Middle East and democracy, I have told my American friends that the region in this world that has seen the most transformation and change is Central and Eastern Europe--without shedding a drop of blood. So don't preach to us."

---German Ambassador to the United States Wolfgang Ischinger, as quoted in The New Yorker, May 30, 2005 edition, page 70.

[Jeff]

@ Neokomplott

Japan

[Dan Kauffman]

3. ...that never had a democracy before.

Posted by: Neokomplott | May 27, 2005 07:19 PM
*************************************************

I suppose you think a Free Society just "Reconstitutes" itself automtically and that the destruction of the Nazi regime by the West was not necessar, that in time they would have gotten tired of slaughtering Untermencshen and returned to Democratic rule?

rotflamo

You really think your little test means something??

[Neokomplott]

Unfortunately, I'm not alone:

"If nation-building means the creation of self-sustaining state capacity that can survive once foreign advice and and support are withdrawn, then the number of historical cases where this has happened successfully drops to a depressingly small handful."

(Francis Fukuyama: State Building. Governance and World Order in the 21st Century)

Neokomplott

It is a distressingly small handful where it has been tried.