MioMyo
2009-06-05 11:00:13 UTC
Or should I say the left's supposed claim of a rift the US created
throughout the world.
Well bamby does it by cozying up to nations which produce Jihadist that want
nothing more than to kill us while Destroying Strong Ties with Economic
Powerhouse Allies we need in order to end the current global recession.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/world/europe/05germany.html?_r=1&ref=world
DRESDEN, Germany - After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on
Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for
his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States, marked
by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is not an
outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions and
disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to the
future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.
On a more basic level, there is a sense that the Obama administration is
ignoring the needs and counsel of longtime allies. Divided Germany was once
at the center not only of the cold war, but of American foreign policy as
well, which is no longer the case. Yet the United States can ill afford to
alienate Europe's largest economy and its most important intermediary in the
strained relationship with Russia. "They're not angry, they're not
anti-Obama or anti-American," said John C. Kornblum, a former United States
ambassador to Germany and now a business adviser in Berlin. "But they're
confused by the wave of criticism which has been sent at them by the
administration and people close to the administration.
"It's not that they don't like him," he said. "They just feel like things
aren't working, like the levers of government are not being engaged to make
issues run smoothly."
Mr. Obama arrived in Dresden, in the former East Germany, on Thursday night
for a visit that will also take him to Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration
camp, and the American military hospital in Landstuhl. The German news media
have questioned why Mr. Obama was not going to Berlin, suggesting the
omission might have been intended as a snub to Mrs. Merkel. Her advisers say
it is no such thing and instead praise Mr. Obama's interest in the former
East Germany, where Mrs. Merkel grew up.
While Mr. Obama enjoys tremendous personal popularity among the German
people, relations with Mrs. Merkel have been bumpy from the beginning. In
Germany much symbolic weight is attached to Mrs. Merkel's decision not to
travel to Washington to meet with Mr. Obama in March, but to talk by video
conference instead.
But signs of discord were evident even last summer, when Mrs. Merkel
rejected Mr. Obama's request during the presidential campaign to speak in
front of the Brandenburg Gate, saying it was not an appropriate location for
a candidate's address. Mr. Obama drew more than 200,000 people to hear his
speech at a nearby monument.
The president's high standing with the German public adds to the strain in
his relationship with Mrs. Merkel, local analysts say. "Obama is so popular
with the German people that you have a lot of comments like, 'Why don't we
have a German Obama?' " said Dietmar Herz, director of the Erfurt School of
Public Policy. "Angela Merkel is seen as the exact opposite of a charismatic
leader like Obama, and that is difficult to accept."
There is a sense in Germany, that the smooth Mr. Obama and the flashy
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have a better connection with each other
than either does with the serious-minded Mrs. Merkel. And Mr. Sarkozy's
decision to reintegrate France into the command structure of NATO, though it
had little direct impact on the war in Afghanistan, stood in stark contrast
to Germany's steadfast refusal to send troops to fight in the more violent
south of the country.
At the same time, Mr. Obama's popularity with the left-wing Social
Democrats, rivals to Mrs. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union
in parliamentary elections in September, also helps amplify his and Mrs.
Merkel's differences. The Social Democrats, who are the junior party in an
unhappy coalition under Mrs. Merkel, have embraced Mr. Obama as a natural
ally.
"The Christian Democrats were closer to the Bush administration than they
admitted," Mr. Herz said. "It was very difficult for conservatives like the
chancellor to admit that she was close to a lot of his policies."
Relations were already frosty as the economic crisis deepened and the German
government and Obama administration took sharply differing views on how far
to push stimulus spending. Mrs. Merkel believed that the Americans were
underestimating the threat of inflation. But American policy makers said she
did not understand the depth and the significance of the crisis.
In the early stages of the Obama presidency, officials in the Merkel
government were dismayed by the scarcity of staff in midlevel positions at
the Treasury Department. And Germans remain surprised that an ambassador to
their country has not been named more than four months after Mr. Obama's
inauguration. There is a sense that, with his focus split between domestic
concerns and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new president is taking
his staunchest European allies for granted.
"There is definitely this disappointment in Europe, complaining that there's
nobody home," said Stephen Flanagan, senior vice president of the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
German government officials were outraged that a low-ranking American
official was sent for the negotiations to find a way to keep the traditional
automaker Opel going despite the bankruptcy of its parent company, General
Motors, in the United States. The potential failure of an important
industrial employer before parliamentary elections is no laughing matter for
German politicians, including Mrs. Merkel. Still, Karsten D. Voigt, who
coordinates German-American relations in the German Foreign Ministry,
disputed the contention that relations between the allies were under any
strain, as did Merkel advisers, who rightly point out that this is Mr. Obama's
third visit to Germany in less than a year.
"This takes time in the U.S.," Mr. Voigt said. "Transition is a long
process. It's always a frustrating experience."
throughout the world.
Well bamby does it by cozying up to nations which produce Jihadist that want
nothing more than to kill us while Destroying Strong Ties with Economic
Powerhouse Allies we need in order to end the current global recession.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/world/europe/05germany.html?_r=1&ref=world
DRESDEN, Germany - After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on
Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for
his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States, marked
by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is not an
outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions and
disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to the
future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.
On a more basic level, there is a sense that the Obama administration is
ignoring the needs and counsel of longtime allies. Divided Germany was once
at the center not only of the cold war, but of American foreign policy as
well, which is no longer the case. Yet the United States can ill afford to
alienate Europe's largest economy and its most important intermediary in the
strained relationship with Russia. "They're not angry, they're not
anti-Obama or anti-American," said John C. Kornblum, a former United States
ambassador to Germany and now a business adviser in Berlin. "But they're
confused by the wave of criticism which has been sent at them by the
administration and people close to the administration.
"It's not that they don't like him," he said. "They just feel like things
aren't working, like the levers of government are not being engaged to make
issues run smoothly."
Mr. Obama arrived in Dresden, in the former East Germany, on Thursday night
for a visit that will also take him to Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration
camp, and the American military hospital in Landstuhl. The German news media
have questioned why Mr. Obama was not going to Berlin, suggesting the
omission might have been intended as a snub to Mrs. Merkel. Her advisers say
it is no such thing and instead praise Mr. Obama's interest in the former
East Germany, where Mrs. Merkel grew up.
While Mr. Obama enjoys tremendous personal popularity among the German
people, relations with Mrs. Merkel have been bumpy from the beginning. In
Germany much symbolic weight is attached to Mrs. Merkel's decision not to
travel to Washington to meet with Mr. Obama in March, but to talk by video
conference instead.
But signs of discord were evident even last summer, when Mrs. Merkel
rejected Mr. Obama's request during the presidential campaign to speak in
front of the Brandenburg Gate, saying it was not an appropriate location for
a candidate's address. Mr. Obama drew more than 200,000 people to hear his
speech at a nearby monument.
The president's high standing with the German public adds to the strain in
his relationship with Mrs. Merkel, local analysts say. "Obama is so popular
with the German people that you have a lot of comments like, 'Why don't we
have a German Obama?' " said Dietmar Herz, director of the Erfurt School of
Public Policy. "Angela Merkel is seen as the exact opposite of a charismatic
leader like Obama, and that is difficult to accept."
There is a sense in Germany, that the smooth Mr. Obama and the flashy
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have a better connection with each other
than either does with the serious-minded Mrs. Merkel. And Mr. Sarkozy's
decision to reintegrate France into the command structure of NATO, though it
had little direct impact on the war in Afghanistan, stood in stark contrast
to Germany's steadfast refusal to send troops to fight in the more violent
south of the country.
At the same time, Mr. Obama's popularity with the left-wing Social
Democrats, rivals to Mrs. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union
in parliamentary elections in September, also helps amplify his and Mrs.
Merkel's differences. The Social Democrats, who are the junior party in an
unhappy coalition under Mrs. Merkel, have embraced Mr. Obama as a natural
ally.
"The Christian Democrats were closer to the Bush administration than they
admitted," Mr. Herz said. "It was very difficult for conservatives like the
chancellor to admit that she was close to a lot of his policies."
Relations were already frosty as the economic crisis deepened and the German
government and Obama administration took sharply differing views on how far
to push stimulus spending. Mrs. Merkel believed that the Americans were
underestimating the threat of inflation. But American policy makers said she
did not understand the depth and the significance of the crisis.
In the early stages of the Obama presidency, officials in the Merkel
government were dismayed by the scarcity of staff in midlevel positions at
the Treasury Department. And Germans remain surprised that an ambassador to
their country has not been named more than four months after Mr. Obama's
inauguration. There is a sense that, with his focus split between domestic
concerns and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new president is taking
his staunchest European allies for granted.
"There is definitely this disappointment in Europe, complaining that there's
nobody home," said Stephen Flanagan, senior vice president of the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
German government officials were outraged that a low-ranking American
official was sent for the negotiations to find a way to keep the traditional
automaker Opel going despite the bankruptcy of its parent company, General
Motors, in the United States. The potential failure of an important
industrial employer before parliamentary elections is no laughing matter for
German politicians, including Mrs. Merkel. Still, Karsten D. Voigt, who
coordinates German-American relations in the German Foreign Ministry,
disputed the contention that relations between the allies were under any
strain, as did Merkel advisers, who rightly point out that this is Mr. Obama's
third visit to Germany in less than a year.
"This takes time in the U.S.," Mr. Voigt said. "Transition is a long
process. It's always a frustrating experience."