The US administration bears a share of the blame
Posted in General on 16. Oct, 2010
The US administration bears a share of the blame.Mr Bush of all people must know that election campaigns are dangerous times, when home and foreign policy become hopelessly entangled. The minister concerned has been punished in the most thorough and appropriate way: she lost her seat and resigned her ministry.But it must be said that, despite recriminations against Mr Schr? from the losing side in Germany, few quarrels are one-sided. The comparison between Mr Bush and Hitler, albeit indirect, was politically maladroit and morally indefensible. But the White House warned yesterday that no one should expect any early improvement.
In one single respect, Washington’s enduring anger is understandable. This is not a healthy situation and not one that should last. Relations between the most powerful country in the world and its largest ally in Europe lie in shreds.
The chief casualty, along with the ambitions of the right under Edmund Stoiber, were the friendly ties between Germany and the US. Close elections have a habit of bringing out the basest of political instincts, and the German election was no exception. Prince Charles risks undoing all her work; he and his spinners should remember what happens if they play with fire.. The Queen, who has earned the respect of even hardened republicans, managed to shore up the institution. But it is hard to see his interventions as anything but an unwarranted interference in the parliamentary process.The behaviour of the monarchy in general, and Prince Charles and his siblings in particular, led many Britons to question their support for such an antiquated constitutional arrangement. His “friends” claim he is merely exercising his right as heir to the throne to give his views to the government. Now we learn that in a series of green-ink letters to ministers he has complained about army training and hygiene in nursing homes and even berated the Chancellor over the Human Rights Act.Curiously, these confidential letters, seen only by the ministers concerned, have turned up in the Daily Mail, which has appeared remarkably well-informed about Prince Charles.
The Bush administration said yesterday that it had provided evidence of “linkage” between Iraq and al-Qa’ida, to its allies. They ought to give it out annually, a Donald F Rumsfeld prize for International Diplomacy.
Yesterday the American Defence Secretary rubbed more salt into the raw wound of US/German relations over the looming conflict in Iraq.Having earlier described ties as “poisoned”, he then proffered his views on how the Germans might patch matters up. His small, dilapidated house is situated in a street between the plush 1000 square metre residence built by Slobodan Milosevic and the sprawling White House, the Yugoslav state residence built by Josip’s grandfather – of the same name – but better known as Tito.
Unlike the Milosevic family, who amassed a fortune of amazing proportions, Tito’s grandson has almost nothing. They argue that the delay of Europe’s balanced-budget deadline to 2006 may lead to higher inflation, prevent lower interest rates and test the credibility of the euro.Didier Reynders, Belgium’s Finance Minister, argued: “If next year or in 2004 the German, Italian or French budgets should again veer away from an equilibrium, I think we would not only put at risk the pact but the legitimate confidence of investors and consumers in the evolution of the European Union.”The Austrian Finance Minister, Karl-Heinz Grasser, said: “If one now postpones this [deadline] to 2006, that would be a wrong signal. A damaging rift opened in the European Union yesterday as smaller states angrily denounced a decision to relax Europe’s single currency rules to suit more powerful nations unable to balance their budgets.
But the French government has proposed a deficit of €44.6bn (£28bn) or 2.6 per cent of GDP, the same as this year.Its projections are based on a forecast that the French economy will grow at 2.5 per cent next year, which is seen as wildly optimistic by non-government economists. The French national budget for next year, tabled yesterday, defies even the more relaxed rules on public finances in the eurozone proposed by Brussels on Tuesday.
The European Commission wants countries belonging to the single currency to reduce their budget deficits in yearly steps to nothing by 2006 (instead of 2004 as originally agreed). And in my view it should be a source of pride, not envy or resentment.” (1996)ON RELIGION”All my life I have wanted to heal things, whether it’s been the soil, the landscape or the soul.” (Foreword to a book about his Highgrove garden, 1993)”[I would rather be seen as] defender of faith [or] defender of the faiths [rather than] defender of the faith… Clausewitz called war the continuation of diplomacy by other means.