Mühltal, June 7th 2004
Dear Debbie,
mission impossible accomplished! On the 60th anniversary of the allied landing in Normandy German Chancellor Schröder held a speech without mentioning the word “American”. He preferred talking about the allied forces and their sacrifice, but unlike President Bush, he did not say who was part of the allied forces. To my big surprise he mentioned the Russian soldiers expressis verbis. Do not misunderstand me. Of course, the sacrifice of the Russian soldiers in fighting against Hitler should not be forgotten, but as far as I know, the Russians did not take part in the allied landing in Normandy, did they?
Chancellor Schröder went on thanking France for helping with the German reunification, but here again, at least, as far as I remember, it was French President Mitterand who, in the beginning, was not at all delighted to see Germany reunify, whereas President Bush strongly supported German reunification. And knowing that Ronald Reagan had died the day before, wouldn´t this have been the moment to remember his famous words: “Mr. Gorbatchov, tear down this wall!”?
Maybe you´re gonna tell me I am seeing things, but I felt that this has been a highly anti-American speech. Not in plain terms, of course, but we, Europeans, do not say it the direct way and when you start reading between the lines, …
… you maybe get an impression of what is meant by “power of peace”, the slogan of the social democratic European election campaign. I can only hope that their slogan will show no power. I will do my very best on Sunday
Love, Karin