Marcia Pally on German Hypocrisy

Welt am Sonntag, the Sunday edition of the conservative German daily Welt, published in its January 23, 2006, edition this excellent piece ("Dad, you burgeois, can I have the keys to the BMW?") by Marcia Pally. Her article addresses the hypocrisy in Germany with regard to the U.S. led war against terrorism. I obtained the original English version through Stefan Herre, who's blog "Politically Incorrect" I very much recommend to our German speaking readers.

This is are links to Marcia Pally's home page and to one of her books.

“Every nation has the government it deserves.” Joseph de Maistre, 1811.

What did the Schroeder government know, and when did they know it? Since the disclosure of Bundesnachrichtendienstes (BND) activities in Iraq, these questions have percolated throughout Germany, along with a third: how much did they lie to us? These are important questions about government. But I am concerned with “us.” The responsibility for what the country does is not the state’s but ultimately ours. If we abdicate scrutiny of government, then we will get the Fuehrer we deserve.

It is very dangerous for Germany, as for any democracy, to have one set of beliefs about what it is and does, and yet for the government to do something else--while the nation buries its head in its benign self-image. The German people were overwhelmingly against the Iraq war. The nation cheered when the Court affirmed the young soldier who would not fulfill a post which freed US soldiers for Iraq operations. This, said the public, is the principled people we are. Yet not only did BND operatives work on the ground in Iraq but Germany cooperated with the US in intelligence and logistics, offering Ramstein and other facilities.

Indeed, German intelligence has been a key ally to the US in the “war on terror” in spite of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and US use of the death penalty. The government knew of CIA flights to East European interrogation sites, and if it receives intelligence from governments that use torture, it uses the information and passes it on to the US. Elite German units are catching Taliban and

Al Qaeda in Afghanistan—don’t they too pass prisoners on to the US, for transport to where? Broadening the field: Germany is one the world’s largest car exporters; the economy depends on imported oil. Is it possible that Germany has no interests in oil geopolitics? Is it possible that German relations with Russia are unconnected with the pipeline that gives Germany 25% of its natural gas?

Schroeder lied about Germany’s military and foreign policies to win an election. So it’s come to this: to win, the state must shield the populace from basic governmental activities. More importantly, the people are willing to be shielded—to look away. Having been the world’s rapist, they now want to be virgins. But having sworn to atone for the sins of the 20th century and to stand by non-violent conflict resolution—all laudable goals--Germans have made themselves into adolescents. They criticize the US for its geopolitical interests and quick-fix belligerence (an often valid critique) and claim moral superiority: No blood for oil. This would be fine if it were consistent with actual policy. But then Germans turn a blind eye to their government’s geopolitics and let the US secure their oil—which is rather like criticizing dad for being bourgeois and then asking for the keys to the BMW.

(To those who say they did not know what their government was doing, I will not remind them of the phrase’s history. Instead I’ll say that if I, inexpertly reading the papers with my German-English dictionary, knew, then you knew.)

Germans have looked aside when government geopolitics aren’t up to their ideals because they are absorbed with their self-image as the planet’s peace party. Yet, the last time Germans turned a blind eye to their leaders, the results were not good. Ironically, the more the nation is absorbed in its good-guy self-image rather than with monitoring state policies, the more it risks becoming the undemocratic country of its past—the country which clinging to the peace-party image is meant to prevent.

Germany is too rich and technologically expert, too needed globally and engaged in the world for this sort of ingenuousness. And naïvete is no way to run a democracy. Either you elect a government that effects your principles, or you recognize what the sitting government is doing for you—your economy and lifestyle--and supervise it. It is not Germany’s moral stance that I question. It is the people abdicating their supervisory role over government that I fear.

Two things happen when Germany looks away from government activities. First, you cannot address your economic and geopolitical interests—from oil to supporting democratic movements--if you imagine that you don’t have any. Second, you cannot remain a democracy. For imagining that you have no interests, you leave them to the government to secure behind your back. And that is not self-rule. In a democratic system of checks and balances, the final check is the people.

The current debate in Germany should not be limited to Iraq or BND activities. It should open a larger one about developing a mature foreign policy commensurate with Germany’s wealth, interests, and with its potential and responsibilities on the planet. (emphasis added)

I find this cartoon a rather fitting description of Germany's stance in the war against terrorism:

Comments

[James]

This is nothing new. Recall:

German's protest against Reagan calling him a "war monger" for deploying missles in Europe (although the Soviets already had a nuclear deployment). Also for criticising his call to Gorbachev to re-unite Germany and "tear down this wall." Later the US was one of the FEW countries to stand in support of Germany's desired re-unification.

Today Germany is a leading trade partner with Russia. Was it not in Germany's interest to see the Soviet Union fall? After all Germany supports democracy, right?

Priciples fly out the window when it comes to politics. Just get me re-elected, please.

How will Germany deal with Iran? There is much trade at interest.... Watch this spot...

Ray, what was that quote that you have of Rumsfeld catching Spiegel in their own contradiction: "Germany is supposed to be leading here. Then lead!"

[Oh Eric!]

James, I think the real zinger was a couple of sentences later:

SPIEGEL: We are in the middle of regime change in Germany...

Rumsfeld: ... that's hardly the phrase I would have selected.

And also more on topic for this article. Does the Spiegel interviewer really think of it as regime change, or is that just someone with less than fluent english speaking?

[Don]

James, I think it is 'something new'. Oh the analysis isn't particularly fresh, but Germans capable of seeing German behavior as it is are as rare as hen's teeth.

One of these rare Germans actually getting published by a German publication is a new thing, no matter how you look at it!

Many Germans have a fairly valid POV, in my opinion. The irritating thing is the assumption that theirs is the only moral POV. And also their insistence that the means used to combat terrorism be simon-pure. The phrase about Germans having been the 'world's rapists' and now wanting to be 'virgins' was spot-on.

It often seems that Germans want the US to fight terrorism, alright, but only confined within a straitjacket allowing no movement. With no help from Germany worth speaking of. Finally they seem to have a lust for convicting US soldiers of 'war crimes' - as if straightjacketing them is not enough.....

[Sock Puppet of Doom]

This was a really honest and blunt article. Will one opinion piece like this have much impact? I wish the 1968s here in the US and there in Germany would just vanish. Then we might see some more adult opinions like this.

[Pamela]

>> It is not Germany’s moral stance that I question. It is the people abdicating their supervisory role over government that I fear.

Cry me a river, sweetheart.

You abdicated alot more than this when you signed up with the EU.

[romanthomas]

Is it not amazing how Western Europe talks out of both sides of their mouth? With the, "You're only their for the oil!" Yeah, but doesn't Europe use more oil from the Middle East than North America, and since Europeans have a much higher car industry, who are we really there for? Typical, let America do the dirty work on the outside, but inside, they're cheering us on.

[samizdat43]

I wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Pally...but I wanted to comment on something else which is a pet peeve of mine. Welt am Sonntag closed the article by noting that it was translated "from the American." I have always found this a repugnant bit of condescension, implying as it does that we do not speak English, as well as inadvertantly wholly incorrect linguistically.

Saupreiss Journalisten!

Note from David: You raise in interesting point, samizdat43.
When I read this I was under the impression that the article first was published in an American paper, and this is just the German translation. But the German version is a "first" - from what I've researched, there was no prior publication in an American paper.
Still, I don't then it's meant to be condescending. Just a mistake, I guess.

[FranzisM]

The keys for daddys car were the classic Clinton team metaphor for Javier Solanas command over NATO. For self-described pacifists this was quite a sloppy attitude to the military. But the Clinton team is gone and Javier Solanas myth too. It's not my impression that the Bush administration still would be treating its foreign policy instruments like family luxus items. When Schröder wanted to send "peacekeepers" to the Holy Land during the Jenin hoax, the Clintonian catafalque did not start up. And with the liberation of Iraq the balance of Europe changed.

Yet, the dangerous implication in this metaphor is the inverted reality meme that in the European-American relationship somehow America was the parent and Europe the child while it is in fact the other way round. The 20th century California counter-culture served as a catalyst for the post-war rebirthing but is not our ancestor, since the new Europe still is a reinvention of the old one and not the descendant of its own descendant. This nasty little piece of ontological incest originated with Robert Anton Wilson decades ago, but nowadays that role inversion has become a commonplace view, even as each side must live its generation conflicts for itself.

Part of this is that the new pacifism is forever, even though the Schröder government and the secret services still have tried to work around it. The German adolescence period was violent, but it only can be over if the political double-cross of the last administration won't be resumed. In a strange mix, this writer is spot on to call for Germans to supervise our geopolitics and avoid self-images based on distinction from others, but is then again suicidally wrong in her call for giving up the culturally idiosyncratic anticipation of peace which enables us to survive in the hemisphere of Mecca and Medina. It may look like a good idea from a distant shore though...

As for the fossile energy resources, the interest is not the preservation of the status quo of the Middle East, as hailed by the stability fetishists of the Joschka Fischer type, but a geopolitical solution of the oil question that provides long-term equilibrium with a minimum of regulation. With the current status quo of fossile energy resources remaining a matter of national sovereignty the totalitarian robber barons cannot be brought to justice, hence the oil question must become a part of the UN reform agenda. If all national governments give up their taxation right on the exploitation of fossile resources to a central authority then the OPEC totalitarians can't complain they were being singled out when they lose the source of their power.

BTW, where does that drawing come from? Pakistan?

[moonfarer]

Since I left Germany in 1952 as a U.S immigrant, I have doubted the political sanity of the German people.

I base this opinion on the fact that hardly any country in the modern age has lost a war as totally as Germans did and that this loss has had a profoundly negative effect upon the overall balance of the German psyche. As a matter of fact, it has disabled Germans from developing a healthy selfrespect or normal patriotism and love of their own country.

The best example for this abnormality of West Germans is their decision not to defend human rights of 12 Millions of their own brothers and sisters (i.e., German expellees from East German territorities.) but intead, to involve themselves morally with politics of countries which have no politicial or historical link with Germany at all (like Chile or the U.S war in Iraq)

It is an obviously insane attempt to neglect the primary duties they have to defend basic human rights of their own countrymen, before attempting to cure other human rights violations all over the world.

Boca Raton, Florida