Meine Einschätzung ist aber, dass insgesamt wir auf dem Wege sind, doch auch in der Breite der Gesellschaft zu verstehen, dass ein Land unserer Größe mit dieser Außenhandelsorientierung und damit auch Außenhandelsabhängigkeit auch wissen muss, dass im Zweifel, im Notfall auch militärischer Einsatz notwendig ist, um unsere Interessen zu wahren, zum Beispiel freie Handelswege, zum Beispiel ganze regionale Instabilitäten zu verhindern, die mit Sicherheit dann auch auf unsere Chancen zurückschlagen negativ durch Handel, Arbeitsplätze und Einkommen.
What's that? You don't speak German?? Well, ok...here's the translation:
In my estimation, though, we—including society as a whole—are broadly on our way towards understanding that a country of our size, with its export-led and hence export-dependent nature, needs to recognize that in cases of uncertainty or emergency, military deployment, too, is necessary if we are to uphold our interests such as ensuring free trade routes or preventing regional instability which is also certain to impair our ability to safeguard trading-related jobs and incomes.~Horst Köhler, Interview with Deutschlandradio, 22 May 2010
Don't understand what's so offensive in that? Well, essentially what he was saying, is that Germany is in Afghanistan for its own economic gain...so basically, he quit his job for saying what 99% of the population already knew. You don't see American politicians resigning over that kind of stuff... though they accuse each other of it constantly.
Then when I was walking home from the Abendkurs tonight, I was listening to the radio on my phone. They were playing some kind of joke--called up somewhere in Washington and asked in broken English/German, "Can we have Obama?"
"You want Obama?"
"Yeah, we don't have a president. Can we borrow Obama for four weeks, maybe five?"
"You calling the wrong place!"
"Yeah, but see, we need to borrow Obama."
"You calling the wrong place!!!"
That was basically how the conversation went, and it made me laugh.
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