TRANSLATION PROBLEMS?: let's see if the American public and press bother to pick up on the following sentences in Schroeder's speech, sentences that I render below, with comments afterwards:

"Our population and people throughout the world have a right to know the following: we will never make casual ["leicht"] decisions about the use of military force and sending troops." In other words, we may, in fact, use military force and send troops, but we will consider this to be a grave step. Later on in the speech, Schroeder notes that the decision to use force is legitimate only as a last step and when taken by the legitimate authority (here, the UN). But unless you really believe that these restrictive conditions nullify Schroeder's commitment to the use of force in appropriate circumstances, it's a little unfair to accuse Germans of being entirely unwilling to employ force.

"Since 1998, we have increased tenfold the German contribution to peacekeeping efforts: from 200 million to 2 billion euros per year. After the U.S., Germany has made the second largest contributions in terms of troops in international efforts to create and secure peace. Since 1998, more than 100,000 German soldiers have risked their lives and health in such enterprises." Americans are likely to think that somehow the total U.S. military strength should be relevant here, and they may be right. But it's also worth noting that popular U.S. rhetoric about Germans shirking their international duties is gravely overstated. Do you think, if we had 10% unemployment, that a $2 billion+ commitment to foreign affairs could be sustained in Congress?

"Germans and Americans are connected by the gratitude that we feel [toward the U.S.] for freeing us from the Nazi dictatorship and [for giving us] a chance for a democratic reconstruction." I've heard a lot about how "ungrateful" the Germans are being these days. See, for example, Senator John Kyl's contribution to the debate here. This doesn't sound like an ungrateful sentence to me.

My main point here is not that we should agree with Schroeder in all points. I'm just curious how many folks in the U.S. a) will bother to study the speech (repeat after me: Americans should learn foreign languages), or b) will bother to note the potentially deflating moments in the speech itself.

Or perhaps I'm just reacting to my recent attempts to listen to the terminally stupid Laura Ingraham show on AM radio. More on all of this as the week progresses, I'm sure.

Schroeder's speech is available as a PDF file here.

For my recent discussion of the sorry state of the U.S. State Department budget and its potential impact on democracy promotion, go here. Compare the figures there with the second quote, above.

UPDATE: NPR reporter Emily Harris filed a story on Thursday afternoon that mentioned the sentence on German gratefulness, but, as far as I can tell, she's the only American journalist to have done so. A story in the Washington Post doesn't mention any of the particular sentences I noted above, but my criterium is admittedly severe: the story does quote some related lines about "common aims." But what sounds vanilla and lame in the WaPo story sounds pretty forceful in the original speech, I'd say.