As for Lady Chirol, she’s indepedent and doesn’t always vote along party lines so it’s hard to say. She’s also not particularly interested in politics =(

Curzon: Please explain in what way the Iraq war was in compliance with international law? As to your valid question, you didn’t search for information about it I presume. The German Bundeswehr currently has enganged in activies in Bosnia and Herzegowina, Kosovo, Georgia, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Athiopia and Eritrea, Cap Horn and Indonesia with over 7,000 troops. Please note that those are only the international engagements. There’s only so much you can do, and the US for example already experience the boundaries of their own, in comparison far more extensive military capabilities. Germany’s Bundeswehr has a far smaller standing army (not mentioning the structural reform it is undergoing) and is a conscript army, too – with the usual impact on its utilisability. In the case of Iraq, the government did ask Germany for help, and indeed they do get it. Low-profile enough to be overlooked, I have to concede, but you can read about it here

So, to say that Germany doesn’t do anything at all is wrong as well, but then again, you have to look for the information first before stating a black-and-white situation and the case closed. Just my two euro-cents.

Chirol: Do I take it you would vote for the CDU if you were German? Does that conflict with your theological views? How about the Lady Chirol, who is, I assume, a German citizen?

“The electors of North Rhine-Westphalia certainly understand the nature of the times in which they live. If it were just a matter of kicking Gerhard Schröder’s sorry ass around the room, I’d be all in favour of last Sunday’s election result. But, in fact, voters in the Ruhr were punishing his party for their temerity in proposing even a teensy-weensy, tentative, tepid reform of their arthritic welfare state. They may have ended four decades of SPD rule, but they did so in order to vote against change. The Christian Democrats and Liberal Democrats are merely passing beneficiaries of the electorate’s determination to live in denial for as long as they can get away with it. It was a vote for the present tense, a vote to say to the moment linger awhile, another decade or three.”

The FDP is not actually a right / conservative party per se – while they tend to have more similarities with the CDU, they do form coalitions with the SPD as well (catchword Ampelkoalition), the “Liberals” tend towards the CDU since the early 80ies thoughs. Before that, they switched sides between CDU and SPD quite often.

While German public opinion is not only anti-US,…

So, let’s differentiate generalizations a little bit. My impression is rather the public opinion is anti-US-government, but impressions are never representative. I agree polls were bad during the Iraq War, the Europeans have to work closer with the Americans thought some 31%, while 52% saw a neccessity to walk another path (politicly). Also, during the same period, 40% said that there’s an Anti-American sentiment, while the same number of people said there’s none. The reason for the first 40% were almost exclusively the Iraq War controversy. (source KAS, which has close ties to the CDU). Or take a look at this graph If you’re curious about what influenced German people’s view on the US most, take a look here

…a new government would help to begin changing that.

Which is probably true for the US (and modifications in their foreign policy) as well. ;-)

While nobody should expect to see German troops in Iraq ever,…

One problem with the war was that it broke international law and was completely illegal, sending troops there without consent of the UNO would have been impossible (even if the government would have wanted to send them).

…but I agree with you that the new government (and it’s very, very likely that the CDU will take over in Germany, anything else would be a wonder for Chancellor Schröder) shouldn’t reject Turkey full membership in the long run, geopolitically that’s such a grave mistake.