Warm words weaken US-German ice

George W Bush and Gerhard Schroeder in happier times

By Catherine Miller BBC News Online

As Germans this week remembered the end of the Cold War with the unveiling of a newly refurbished Brandenburg Gate, another, albeit rather briefer, political ice age was beginning to thaw.

A letter from President George W Bush to German President Johannes Rau congratulating him on the 12th anniversary of German reunification was the first direct contact from the US leader since Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's narrow re-election.

The best thing would be for Schroeder to resign

Richard Perle

"The German and American people have ties that date back to the establishment of our nation. Over the past half century, those bonds were deepened by a shared commitment to democratic values... The end of communism and fall of the Berlin Wall were a great success for both our nations," he wrote.

But just days earlier, an adviser to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been evoking the two countries' shared history in rather less happy terms.

Referring to the US role in defeating Hitler, post-war reconstruction and finally German reunification, Richard Perle said "the chancellor has thrown it all out the window".

"I have never before seen such a close relationship so quickly and so heavily damaged as through Schroeder's election campaign," Mr Perle told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

"The best thing would be for him to resign. But he obviously won't do that," he said.

Though Mr Perle was expressing his personal opinion, the call for regime change in Berlin was symptomatic of the diplomatic bitching that has gone on since Mr Schroeder scraped back into the chancellorship with a paper-thin victory over conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber.

Poisoning

In pre-election TV duels, Mr Stoiber had warned that Mr Schroeder's decision to rule out participation in a US-led Iraq "adventure" would alienate Germany's traditional protector.

Mr Schroeder poo-poohed this as an anachronistic view - until a reported comment by Mr Schroeder's justice minister really did snap tempers in Washington.

Donald Rumsfeld: If you are in a hole, stop digging

With only days to go before the election, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said Herta Daeubler-Gmelin had "poisoned" the atmosphere between the two countries by allegedly comparing Mr Bush's tactics with those of Adolf Hitler.

So far, Berlin seems not to have found the antidote - though not for want of trying.

Ms Daeubler-Gmelin resigned the day after the election.

Germany, in co-operation with the Netherlands, has offered to take over the leadership of the stabilisation force in Afghanistan in the New Year.

It has suggested, though not officially, that it could form the core of a stabilisation force in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

And it has even tried to woo Mr Bush via 10 Downing Street, with Mr Schroeder making London his first post-election visit, in favour of the traditional Paris meeting.

Failed flirtation

But the Bush administration has made it clear it is not ready to forget, and certainly not forgive, words spoken in the fever of a nailbitingly tight election.

Still, 12 days after the election, there has been no official letter of congratulations.

Joschka Fischer: Friendly words with Colin Powell

Mr Rumsfeld pointedly snubbed Defence Minister Peter Struck at a Nato meeting in Warsaw - refusing to be seen shaking his hand and absenting himself from Mr Struck's speech.

"If you're in a hole, stop digging," was his comment when asked there about the German-American relationship.

And though Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Secretary of State Colin Powell have exchanged friendly words by phone, there are no plans yet for high level meetings.

Pacifism

However much diplomatic fluttering of eyelashes Berlin attempts, it won't win Washington's favour unless it changes its position on Iraq - and this it is unlikely to do.

Mr Schroeder's stand on Iraq has been immensely popular and the Germans are in no mood for war.

Perhaps more importantly, it was Mr Fischer's Greens who brought Mr Schroeder back to power.

While they bent their pacifist principles over Afghanistan last year, as a much stronger faction in the new government they are unlikely to be swayed this time round.

With a razor-thin majority in parliament and the opposition baying for his blood, Mr Schroeder will not want to go it alone.