Tim Blair

WANTED: ARMY RECRUITS. MUST PROVIDE OWN POETRY

Gerhard Schroeder kicked off the Day of German Unity with his usual rank anti-Americanism, and might have expected his fellow speakers to follow suit. One didn’t: Hungarian Nobel Prize winner and keynote speaker Imre Kertész. David Kaspar has the story, plus German reaction to Kertész’s excellent speech.

Hey, maybe some of those listening to Schroeder will be motivated to join the German army, currently seeking girlish new recruits:

"We get bombarded with Rambo types with knives between their teeth and a foot in the far-Right scene, but not enough reflective candidates who are interested in contributing to world peace and wouldn't mind going abroad, something they didn't have to contemplate 10 years ago," said Capt Thomas Huber, the spokesman for "Our Army", which, without a hint of irony, he described as a "travelling circus".

That’s what you need in a soldier. The capacity to reflect.

UPDATE. Alan R.M. Jones writes to point out that wily Gerhard carefully alters his message depending on the audience. Here he is last month celebrating the 100th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany:

“The United States of America selflessly helped us restore our democracy after Germany took a series of wrong turns which culminated in the unprecedented barbarity of National Socialism. Nobody who, as I did, grew up during the post-war years, will ever forget the part the US played in our recovery. I am not just referring to the economic assistance from the Marshall Plan and the unique political guidance that helped us become self-confident democrats. That initially only benefited the western part of our divided nation. But without our democratic example, and without the United States as guarantor of freedom during the Cold War decades, Germany would never have been able to reassert its unity in freedom. And nobody welcomed and supported this unity as did our American friends. I would like to give special mention to the great services of George Bush, the US President of the time.”

Yeah. Pity about those “wrong turns”.