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| Iraq |
| German FM pleads against Iraq war with Rumsfeld |
| 2003-02-09 |
| The Munich Conference on Security on Saturday, February 8, turned into a direct face-off between the United States calling for precipitating a military action against Iraq and its staunch sceptics in the European continent. They mean Germany... German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer strongly defended his country's "How much more time?" "How 'bout another twelve years?" Warning against the logic of military build-up, the senior German official said that he was simply not convinced by the U.S. case for strikes against the Baghdad regime and warned against any unilateral action. "We must exhaust all possible means in order to resolve this crisis," he told the Munich Conference on Security, an annual gathering that draws a who's who of international foreign policy and defense figures. Seems like we already have... The world needed political alternatives every bit as much as muscle, Fischer said. "The deciding question is whether the risk is already so great that it justifies a war," he said — and on that point, Germany was of a different opinion to the United States. That's because the Fritzies prefer verbiage to doing anything of substance... The German minister was speaking at the high-level security conference moments after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an equally impassioned plea for the world to "unite behind action". Rumsfeld said before the high-powered audience that world must be "prepared to use force if necessary" to disarm Iraq, and blasted NATO allies for what he called failing to act to protect Turkey against attack. Since he won't do it himself, if it's necessary, then we have to do it for him. The Fritz's don't seem to think it's necessary. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |