Germany's Vision Closer to Uncle Sam's

In an article for the New York Times Magazine, Richard Bernstein argues that U.S.-German relations have much improved since last year's annual Munich Security Conference, which was beset by mutual hostility. This year, Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said that

even though the United States went ahead with a war that Germany opposed, it is now in the German interest for the Americans to succeed. It is certainly not in Germany's interest for its major ally, the United States, to become bogged down in a quagmire. Fischer used his Munich appearance to put forward a strategic vision that is actually very close to the American one. We face a common threat, Fischer said, and he attached a clear name to it: ''destructive jihadist terrorism with its totalitarian ideology.'' Facing that threat, Fischer declared, it is imperative that ''the coalition's efforts must be successful; the forces of violence and terror in Iraq must not win the upper hand.''

One former U.S. secretary of defense, however, would not let Fischer off the hook:

If Germany agrees that it is essential to win the peace in Iraq, and if winning the peace is so essential to the security of Europe and America, [William] Cohen asked, why would Germany rule out sending troops to Iraq to help the coalition in its struggle?