Goodbye, Friends

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/225712/goodbye-friends/

The German-American friendship was the most powerful myth of the Federal Republic. Now, after the wiretap affair, it is over for good. If we want to become sovereign, we have to take care of our own security.

Goodbye, Friends
Die Zeit, Germany
By Heinrich Wefing
Translated By Judith Meyer
31 October 2013
Edited by Eva Langman

Why do we summon the German-American friendship precisely at the moment it is discovered that the NSA wiretapped Merkel's cell phone? Where does all that indignation, which now grows everywhere, come from — the notion that "something like that" isn't done "between friends"? The phrase resonates with the hurt of a disappointed lover, suggesting that everything was dandy between Washington and Berlin and that this new breach of trust has crashed into the previous harmony.

But is this correct? Was the friendship still that strong? Wasn't it that we didn't really care at the end, wasn't it mostly sober work, routine gestures and the occasional testy conflict of interests? Whoever thinks back to the U.S. president's visit to Berlin this summer will remember the feeling of quiet disappointment that there wasn't actually anything extraordinary anymore, that even the magic power of Obama's rhetoric had broken down and all references to the historic site of the Brandenburg Gate sounded somewhat hollow.

Of course it's outrageous that the Americans digitally burglarized the innermost part of the German state. Thoughtful historian Fritz Stern might have said most clearly, and certainly most impressively, what needed to be said [about the situation]. The soon-to-be nonagenarian, who fled from the Nazis to America and spent his entire life studying German history, has called the wiretapping of Angela Merkel's phone an "unlawful, foolhardy, criminal act."* He spoke of the criminal foolishness of the highest authorities, and declared that it was threatening to destroy the trust that had been built up in the decades since the war.

It may be that the debate over Germany's rejection of the Iraq war was fiercer, that the discord then was deeper and that its effect was longer-lasting and more poisonous. Many actors in Berlin and Washington affirm that now and it sounds almost beseeching, as if they weren't quite sure. For example, Charles Kupchan, professor at Georgetown University and one of the leading experts on transatlantic relations, said the wiretapping scandal will not be “a turning-point” in mutual relations. The Iraq war had been about war and peace. "At that time, Americans and many Europeans had the feeling that their respective security interests were no longer congruent at their core."* In contrast to that, during the recent wiretapping scandal, Americans and Europeans agreed about the goal: They wanted to stop terrorism together. Their only difference in opinion was about the acceptable means. "Those aren't fundamental differences."*

[djean111]

1. They will all stand together, happily, for the upcoming "trade" agreements.

No worries.
Plus, I feel, they ALL are doing this kind of data-scooping and snooping, they just are pissed off that the commoners know about it now, so any indignation (again, IMO) is just deflection.

[bigbrother05]

2. W damaged the relationship and this is a continuation of the separation

Most Germans (and Europeans in general) still liked the US until they saw the innate stupidity of giving W a second term. They of all people understood how a sociopath could fool us once (shame on you), but twice (shame on me)?

Think of Merkel's reaction to W's attempted shoulder rub and you have a pretty clear sense of how the US was viewed, tolerated as long as you don't get too close. Then, Obama was elected and world-wide joy broke out. The US had come to its senses and the nightmare was thought to be over. But the mechanisms of surveillance have persisted and the mistrust has returned. It is all the more disappointing because of the promise seen in the 2008 elections for a new beginning.

It will take time, but maybe a truly balanced relationship can come out of this and both sides will benefit from that. Adjustments of the military footprint will also be a factor moving forward.