News that the Bush White House ordered the NSA to spy on German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder in the run up to the Iraq War is not going down well in Berlin. Seeking to hinder knee-jerk anti-Americanism, Sueddeutsche Zeitung columnist By Stefan Kornelius asks readers to take account of the situation in the United States at the time, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. For him, this is entirely different from more recent NSA-related events.
For the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius starts out this way:
In all things NSA, the following applies: Anyone who wants to understand Americans has to see things from their perspective. To understand is not to tolerate. However, the logic of the other side’s thought process explains the extent of the data collection and the reasons behind it.
In the summer of 2002, this was the thought process of U.S. intelligence: The rubble of September 11 has not been carted away. The intelligence services have suffered an unimaginable humiliation. Now President George W. Bush is pressuring Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It smells like war.
Posted By Worldmeets.USIn Germany, the Schroder-Fischer government picks up the scent, while here at home, the odor is of election defeat. Schroeder senses anti-U.S. sentiment early on. The situation heats up, the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis is formed in Europe, and a group of ten and then of twelve, is formed. In Brussels, a German-led summit plans the creation of a European Defense Agency – an “anti-NATO.” Strong stuff.
READ ON IN ENGLISH OR GERMAN AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US