While the Obama Administration publicly made much of the shady 2009 election in Iran and scrambled to control embarrassment over the even shadier 2009 election in Afghanistan, the new WikiLeaks documents showed officials were surprisingly concerned with the September 2009 election in Germany.
In particular the documents show a preoccupation with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), a Classical Liberal party of limited government whose key issues are lower taxes, a less aggressive foreign policy, and defense of individual liberties. It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the US government would view a German party centered around personal freedom as a serious threat to its own agenda across the world while seeming entirely comfortable, by all accounts, with the Linkspartei, the thinly veiled Communist Party popular in the former East Germany, whose platform explicitly calls for the destruction of capitalism the world over.
But the FDP in general, and its leader Guido Westerwelle (now Foreign Minister) in particular, were seen in the run up to the election as a danger for the Obama Administration, and even after the election a number of cables show serious antipathy toward Foreign Minister Westerwelle and considerable concern that he might spoil certain hawkish goals of the Obama Administration.
Some of the documents show an odd split in the view of the FDP, simultaneously mocking their lack of political savvy (terming Westerwelle the Dan Quayle of Germany) while bemoaning their unseemly (at least from the State Department perspective) interest in personal freedom as a serious problem.
Interestingly enough, it seems the administration made its hostility toward the FDP and its agenda of individual rights and limited state power no real secret to the rest of the German government, and Defense Minister Karl-Theodur zu Guttenberg, which the US terms the “rising star” of the Christian Social Union, is reported to have provided the US embassy specific warnings about Westerwelle’s opposition to the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.
In the end the documents portray a serious concern with the Black-Yellow coalition and expressed hope that Chancellor Angela Merkel could be convinced to see her “legacy” as so important that she would trash any efforts by the FDP to move Germany toward a more free society.
" It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the US government would view a German party centered around personal freedom as a serious threat to its own agenda…"
You are a really good writer Jason and that is a great line!
The FDP in Germany claims to bee a liberal party, which I think, is true only partially.
It seems to be that at least Westerwelle was concerned about personal liberties and some distance to the US occupiers of Germany. Yes, he is still asking the US to move its Nuclear warheads from German territory. And I think some part of his party rejects the US demands for spying on citizens. However, most of the voters of the FDP belong to the richest people in Germany and are very much in favour of uncontrolled Gobalism, i.e. for very good relations to the US and not respecting much the will of the German voters. As other parties, the some leading members of the FDP are probably the most supportive to Israel. IMHO, there is some confusion in this party, some of its leading politicians even confuse uncontrolled capitalism with "libertarian", where I see it much closer to the Neocons like Newt Gingrich's opinion. The diversity of the points of view inside this party is probably responsible for the fact that even the younger and more corrupt politicians in this party now try to push out Westerwelle and others with the help of denunciation to the US embassy staff.
W
"Linkspartei, the thinly veiled Communist Party"
What a ridiculous and ignorant comment. Die Linke is a broad party consisting of factions representing ideologies from Keynesian social democracy to libertarian socialism. Similar to the British Labour Party in the early 20th century. The Communist Platform represents less than 1% of Die Linke's members.
True, they are not thinly veiled communist. They're outright communist.
No, The Left was formed by a merger of two groups. One of these groups was a split from the Social Democratic Party. It was even lead by Oskar Lafontaine, the former leader of the Social Democrats. The other included some communists, and even more former communists.
Antiwar.com should check the foreign policies of the Free Democratic Party and the Left. Which of the parties are the antiwar one? Though the Free Democrats might be fairly decent on civil liberties, it's the Left that wants to pull the German soldiers out of Afghanistan. This website is often complaining about how they get so little support from the left wing. Stuff like this doesn't make it easier.
"But the FDP in general, and its leader Guido Westerwelle (now Foreign Minister) in particular, were seen in the run up to the election as a danger for the Obama Administration, and even after the election a number of cables show serious antipathy toward Foreign Minister Westerwelle and considerable concern that he might spoil certain hawkish goals of the Obama Administration."
And that's what it's all about isn't. The US has become a giant israel, focused on a single issue. More war and more death. If you support that agenda you are good, anyone, anywhere who opposes it is bad and gives these neo-con imbecils panic attacks.
You can't believe everything you read from Wikileaks, they take so many things out of context. The US Governement is huge and made up of so many different voices.
I was in Germany in 2007 and read an article in the a German paper about the President of The Young Democrats of America working in Germany to help get the FDP elected to power. This is the same group that propelled Barak Obama through against Hillary and pushed him to victory in November 2008. My point, so many voices, so many opinions, just because one guy in the adminstration doesn't like the FDP, doesn't mean they are all against the FDP.
Interesting. I would perhaps have thought that this young American Democrat would rather had supported the for instance the German Greens. But sadly it's hardly surprising that Obamite Democrats are supporting neoliberalism, in America and abroad.