3.
Germany, September 2003
Disapproval of the present Gulf War is high in Germany, around 80%. Nevertheless, the fascination with all things American that brought me to the United States still exists among the Germans. It is not restricted to my generation. I have German friends who could be my sons or daughters who look up to America as their big brother, just as I did in 1957.

If you stumbled over the expression "big brother" because it reminded you of George Orwell’s term in his 1984, you are not entirely off the mark. Orwell’s Big Brother instilled fear. Such a fear is developing and eating away the deep gratitude that most Germans still feel for the American protection against Soviet domination.

Anti-Americanism has always been present among Germans throughout the 20^th century, from the left and from the right. America represents cultural levelling for the right, inhumane capitalism for the left. The preemptive Gulf War against Iraq adds a new dimension to these potential enmities: the fear of American power, the same power that had been good during the Cold War because of the Germans’ fear of the Russians. The victorious Red Army had raped German women en masse in 1945, plundered homes, arbitrarily abducted Germans, and established a regime in their zone of occupation which repeated totalitarian practices in the name of anti-fascism. Russians were also, unjustly, considered culturally inferior by many Germans.

The fear of the Russians is gone now, but the mighty protector retained its power. And this power, our American power, now dominating the world, begins slowly to replace the past fear of the Russians. The Germans do not forget that Hitler had wasted the power of the nation in a senseless war. Thus they, more easily than we, understand that the politics of power is addictive.

A tribunal in American-occupied Nuremberg executed Nazi politicians and even generals for German aggressiveness. Following orders was no excuse. The executioner, the hangman, wore an American helmet, as can be seen in a film that was made in Nuremberg.

When the president of the United States determines that a preemptive war is necessary, the American satellite country called the Federal Republic of Germany remembers its gratitude to American power to which it owes its very existence and its unification, but it also remembers the Nuremberg trials. The present German government refused the order to invade Iraq. The Germans are scared of war and the federal chancellor had to face an election.

When I discussed Chancellor Schröder’s refusal to engage the German military in Iraq my German brother complained that Schröder could simply have invoked the German constitution, which defines "defense" narrowly and thus forbids the Chancellor to participate in a preemptive war. He and others were worried about the German-American friendship. When I told my friends that I personally do not know any person in this country who approves Bush’s policies they were amazed. The German now have something like almost a bad conscience for not following the American call to arms. The German center-right opposition parties expressed their desire for keeping the American government happy, although they had to balance this with the unpopularity of the Gulf war.

Americans are seen abroad as proudly associated with American power. Are we?

In their politics the Germans are preoccupied by discontent with their government. The government is a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens. The Social Democrats are traditionally the party of the working man, and the Greens are concerned with the environment. The stagnant German economy demands reduction of the generous German social security system. The present chancellor Schröder is willing to institute the necessary reforms. But that policy contrasts with the tradition of his party, the protection of the common man. In other words, the Germans essentially suffer from the same problems we do, and the questionable solution is the same: tax cuts and borrowing. These problems are not merely similar to ours, they are rooted in the very global capitalism that our country stands for.

Political reforms are necessary in Germany because unemployment is very high. Germany cannot continue to produce high quality manufactured products, export them and pay middle-class wages and let everyone live happily. The global economy, or free trade, would not allow that because it forces the German manufacturers, like ours, to export jobs, because labor plus the social net has become too expensive in Germany. What is happening in Germany is quite similar to what is happening here at home as a consequence of global market economy.

But what is the global economy? Is free market economy not the same as universal capitalism? And who is the champion of universal capitalism? The United States. The foremost goal of American foreign policy in the 20^th century was been the prevention of large chunks of the earth turning economically in on themselves and become autarchist. The oppression of the German, French, Polish, Jewish, Japanese and Russian people by their rulers or German and Japanese occupiers was a much less important reason for fighting them than the controlled economy that Germany and Japan established in their empires. The distressing social changes that are forced upon the industrialized nations by the global economy may very well one day be blamed on the control the United States exerts over the world through its superior military power.