The Thrill Is Gone

Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

That was a brief fling. No sooner had Barack Obama called for more allied support in Afghanistan than Germany's romance with the Democratic Presidential hopeful was on the rocks.

A day after his Berlin speech before an adulating crowd last week, Mr. Obama said more NATO troops in Afghanistan would allow the U.S. to cut its presence there. The "billions of dollars" saved, he told CNN Friday, could "finance lower taxes for middle-class families."

But tax promises that depend on German solidarity are unlikely to materialize. On Sunday the Secretary General of the opposition German Free Democrats, Dieter Niebel, shot back, telling the Bild am Sonntag that "Under no circumstances will the German taxpayer pay with more money and more troops for Afghanistan for tax cuts in the U.S."

Erwin Huber, chairman of the center-right Christian Social Union of Bavaria, called Mr. Obama's statement "a disappointment for Europe and Germany." Mr. Huber, whose CSU is the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, also said that "it is the opposite of solidarity and partnership when one side is to make more sacrifices and the other gains an advantage from it."

Welcome to America's world, Herr Huber. The U.S. twice sacrificed its sons last century to save Europe from German aggression. During the Cold War, Europe "gained an advantage" from America's security umbrella. Today, even in the "good war" in Afghanistan, it's mostly U.S. troops who do the fighting and dying. German soldiers never leave the relatively safe north. That's solidarity?

The German outburst illustrates the hollowness of Mr. Obama's pitch that he'd repair the trans-Atlantic relationship supposedly damaged by President Bush. According to this narrative, Mr. Bush has so antagonized America's allies with his "unilateralism" that they are unwilling to carry their fair burden. But Europeans have long enjoyed the free ride of U.S. protection while enjoying even more criticizing the way it was provided.

In Berlin last week, many Germans felt the thrill of new romance. Now they're beginning to find out that Mr. Obama may not be the man of their dreams.