Germany is an economic giant without effective voice in international affairs..
Gerhard Schröder was the only German chancellor since the second world who tried to make a distinct German voice heard so that it could carry weight and come into play to positively steer international politics in the right direction effectively. He said a resounding no to the invasion of Iraq as did the French president. The Anglo-American circles were shocked even though they went on with their aggression .We read even in the New Testament that human beings do not live from bread alone. The Qur’an and the scriptures of the other major religions confirm this. Great philosophers and great works of literature and art do the same. For some kind of poor journalism today standing on moral high ground is interpreted as weakness amounting to being divorced from reality.
Usually I vote for the Greens or the Left. I voted for Schröder in his last bid for the highest office in the land even though I did not benefit personally from his policies. He sent me to Hartz IV! The veto club must go or be broadened as to include major nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. That is as far as I know also the intention of Schröder. He could not be accused of German nationalism. Why are other Germans afraid to advance his line? Are they satisfied with and blinded by their great achievements in their rat race in an extremely materialistic world?
The present arrangement is mostly the extension of the legacy of the Second World War in which the winners rewarded themselves with the monopoly of power in international affairs indefinitely. Today especially since the downfall of the Soviet system we live in a different world reality. It is no only unfair but also very dangerous to maintain the status quo (ante). In the meantime the issue seems to have been entirely forgotten. Schröder is silent. I think as a former Chancellor he can still make himself heard and as firmly stand for his principle as when he was in power if he still believes in it. France, under Sarkozy, welcomes apparently Anglo-American dictation ending Charles De Gaulle’s tradition of independence. I do appreciate Merkel’s refusal to bow down as usual in submission to the Anglo-American-French pressure on Libya even though I believe the bloodthirsty dictator of Tripoli must be forced out of office as well as the brutal Alawite militarists in Damascus.
Germany alongside India and Brazil, more democratic Russia and China, a genuinely democratised Egypt or Nigeria from Africa, not to forget a Japan free from American military bases- these countries can use veto powers to steer the UN in the right direction so that it cease to be an instrument of the Anglo-American ambition for aggrandisement and war. If this does not happen I am afraid we may have many other war fronts soon as if the present ones were not enough. I think not only all sensible Germans but also all sensible people in the world interested in world peace should take up the matter at the point where Schröder left off. Let us not forget what John Wycliffe said: “Silence gives consent.”