Germany and the US Invasion of Iraq – Ten Years After

SPD man Frank Walter Steinmeier recalls Gerhard Schröder's refusal to join the Bush/Cheney Iraq War debacle.  At the time, it was perceived by the delusional US press as an impertinent slap in the face by an ungrateful US ally:

"Wir sind zu Solidarität bereit. Aber dieses Land wird unter meiner Führung für Abenteuer nicht zur Verfügung stehen."

In zwei kurzen Sätzen fasste Gerhard Schröder im Sommer 2002 seine Haltung zum Irak-Krieg
zusammen. Und überschritt damit eine imaginäre rote Linie, die bis
dahin für jede deutsche Nachkriegsregierung galt. Nie zuvor hatte ein
Bundeskanzler so offen die amerikanische Führungsmacht kritisiert. Nie
zuvor hatte ein Bundeskanzler für sich so deutlich eine eigene
Beurteilungs- und Entscheidungskompetenz reklamiert. Entsprechend
deutlich fielen die Reaktionen aus, im In- und im Ausland. Der damalige
Verteidigungsminister der Bush-Regierung, Donald Rumsfeld,
verweigerte seinem Amtskollegen Peter Struck den Handschlag. Die
deutsche Oppositionsführerin Angela Merkel erklärte einer US-Zeitung:
"Gerhard Schröder spricht nicht für alle Deutschen."

("We are prepared to show solidarity. But under my leadership this country will not be party to adventures."

These two sentences articulated Gerhard Schröder's position on the Iraq War.  And with this he crossed an imaginary red line which every postwar German government had honored up to then. Never before had a chancellor sol openly criticized American leadership. Never before had a chancellor demonstrated his independent judgement and decisiveness.  And the reaction both domestically and internationallly was predicatably strong. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense at the time, refused to shake the hand of his counterpart Peter Struck. Angela Merkel, the leader of the opposition told a US newspaper: "Gerhard Schröder doesn't speak for all Germans.")

Gerhard Schröder was right in his rufusal to be "Bush's Poodle" like Tony Blair.  The Iraq invasion turned out to be an even greater disaster than Schröder could have imagined at the time.  And even though he is despised today by many in Germany for his neo-liberal economic policies and his embrace of Vladimir Putin, all Germans should be grateful that Schröder kept his nation out of the trauma – the lost "blood and treasure"  – of a war that was based on lies.

But in the US today, some are still unable or unwilling to confront the truth.  In her memoir Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush blames Gerhard Schröder for "forcing" her husband to invade Iraq.