Stardate
20020807.0510 (On Screen): Joschka Fischer offers the latest in a long line of pieces of advice to the US (collect 'em all!):
"The United States has the military means to force a regime change in Iraq but does one realize the risks?" Joschka Fischer was quoted as saying by the daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "Does one realize that this would bring with it a total reorganization of the Middle East not only in military but political terms?"
He evidently hasn't figured it out yet. As we engineers would put it, that's not a bug, that's a feature.
Not only do we know that such an attack would "bring with it a total reorganization of the Middle East not only in military but in political terms" but that is one of the reasons for doing so. It's a desirable outcome, one of the primary goals of the campaign.
Of course, Fischer's boss Schroeder seems no more informed:
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted on Wednesday as saying a military strike on Iraq could destroy international support for the U.S.-led war on terror.
"This war (on terror) is not yet won, so I warn against an attack on Iraq," Schroeder was quoted as saying in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.
"It would be less easily understood as an act of defense and could destroy the international alliance against terror."
I must have missed seeing all that "support". (Perhaps it rolled under the sofa.) All I've been seeing is bitching and moaning and predictions of disaster and calls for restraint (by the US). Everyone seems to want a war on terror, but no-one wants any battles to be fought in it. We're evidently going to win it by sitting on our fat asses and being morally superior. This will so impress our enemies that they will cease to attack us out of respect.
Yeah, right.
For that matter, I also seem to have missed seeing any "alliance". (Maybe it's next to the support, under the sofa.) I see a lot of back-seat drivers, but the only nations which have acted like allies have been the UK and Australia and Canada.
Actually, though, Fischer and Schroeder aren't totally out of it. This message wasn't delivered for external consumption. They're pandering:
Schroeder, who is lagging in opinion polls ahead of federal elections on September 22, has stressed his opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq in recent days, in what analysts say is an attempt to mobilize left-wing voters.
Here's hoping they get hammered in the election. Couldn't happen to a nicer pair of guys.
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