Germany’s Coming of Age in Lebanon
The last phase of the debate or, better, odd contortion act about the Bundeswehr’s participation in Lebanon is now slowly winding down. Reminiscent of an adolescent’s transition to adulthood, Germany’s direct participation in Lebanon will finally be a done deal in just a matter of days. And this engagement will also bring with it an end to a long era of German politics in which German participation in the Near East was one without sacrifice. Until now Germans have only provided weapons to Israel, now they will be protecting Israel by using these weapons themselves.
That Germany is still divided over this issue is a bit of an understatement. Most citizens are against German participation of any kind and have yet to understand why the Chancellor and her foreign minister have made this choice, the right choice – the one, in fact, in which they actually had no other choice to make. As Germany and other European nations never get tired of telling us, the United States is neither militarily or politically in the position to provide stability “down there” (in this case Lebanon). This means then that Europe will have to step in and make its contribution this time. And Germany, being the most powerful country in Europe, is therefore not in the position to bow out. And to try and maintain that that special German-Israeli relationship, with the Holocaust looming in the background, offers Germany a way out of this new responsibility won’t fly this time either as Israel has expressly expressed the wish that Germany participate in the mission.
The astounding political posturing and denial that took place across the entire German political spectrum during the course of this debate over the past few weeks has been hard to follow and even harder to understand but also reflects how apprehensive the Germans are about this manner – and in what a predicament the country is in. The signals have been crossed at best. Kurt Beck of the SPD categorically refused to consider sending German troops to the region only to change his mind two weeks later. The Chancellor’s position hasn’t been much different itself. The Foreign Minister has wavered back and forth between one complication consideration to the next while the Defense Minister doesn’t even seem to be involved in the process at all. Edmund Stoiber of the CSU was so vehemently against the sending of German ground forces that one quickly forgot the part about nobody having ever even asked for them. Guido Westerwelle of the FDP tried playing the historic guilt card, forgetting again that Israel had expressly asked for German participation. And good old Oskar Lafontaine openly plays with fear and fire by implying that Germany participation in the Near East will only lead to terror attacks here on German soil.
Ironically, Lafontaine’s irresponsible posturing isn’t even necessary for Germans to see that their country is no longer the isolated island safe from the ravages of international terrorism that they had once thought it to be. And it hasn’t been that way for quite some time.
Gerhard Schröder’s no to German participation in the Iraq war may have made Germans think that their country was a less interesting a target for terrorists for a time, but this imaginary pacifist bonus has now played itself out. And it is often forgotten, for instance, that in the meantime Germany has been the driving force behind the EU decision to place economic sanctions upon the elected Hamas government in Palestine or that Chancellor Merkel has openly labeled Iran’s position vis-à-vis Israel as unacceptable. What is more, the German government’s open support for Israel has never been more open, despite the occasional embarrassing blunder made by certain cabinet members like Frau Wieczorek-Zeul.
Israel no longer serves as just another surface upon which German guilt can be projected. It is also one of Germany’s strategic partners and the only democracy in the entire region. If these two reasons alone don’t offer terrorists the “excuse” they need to attack Germany, what else will?
But this too is going to be part of Germany’s coming of age process: The realization that terrorists don’t need a rational excuse to attack and kill us. They never have needed one. They do so because they can. They do so because they like to.
And, oh yeah, have a nice 9/11 tomorrow, won’t you?