Germany's realignment

Interesting news from The Telegraph (with hat tips to Instapundit and EuroSoc): bq. Germany seeks closer ties with Britain Chancellor was a 'prisoner' of French president in 'catastrophic' opposition to war to topple Saddam. bq. Germany is seeking to distance itself from France's tight embrace and realign itself more closely to Britain and America, senior German officials signaled yesterday. bq. They said the row with Washington over Iraq had been "catastrophic" for Berlin and Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der had become "a prisoner" of President Jacques Chirac's campaign to oppose the war to topple Saddam Hussein last year. And more: bq. Another official explained: "We have to be careful that we are not identified with every word that the French president utters. We must have our own identity and be a little more clever." And now that M Chirac is in such deep kimchee from corporate and government scandals, the French Sparrow missiles plus the Saddam Oil corruption, distance is a good thing... bq. Britain will be wary of German overtures unless it sees concrete evidence of Mr Schr�der's independence from M Chirac rather than mere talk by German officials. Talk the talk - now let's walk the walk. bq. Germany has long regarded a strong alliance with America as vital. But during the diplomatic battles over the war in Iraq Mr Schr�der firmly allied himself to M Chirac in confronting the might of the United States and blocking United Nations authorization for military action. bq. Now German officials say they are also ready to offer limited help in Iraq. "We have an interest in success in Iraq," insisted one official. "Unless there is stability and some kind of democracy there could be a negative domino effect across the region to the detriment of everybody's interests in the West." They have seen the positive domino effect (Libya, Pakistan, etc...) and they want to avoid any connection with those still involved in terrorism. Good news!