Anti-American hatred may be sweeping round the ‘European Street’ more quickly than the Black Death, but the political elites may be secretly grateful to the Great Satan for handing them an opportunity to wriggle off the hook:
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has blamed the Iraq war for crushing global economic growth, as the European Commission prepares to cut its growth forecasts on Tuesday.
“It can already be seen that the war in Iraq has increased the economic uncertainties worldwide, and some of the hopes for economic growth have been impaired, if not entirely destroyed,” Mr Schroeder said in a speech on Sunday night.
And, with a single bound, Gerhard Schroeder was free!! See it isn’t exsanguinating taxes, rigid labour laws, a bloated public sector and a monstrously over-regulated economy that is causing all the problems, it’s those perfidious Yankees and their imperialist war for oil.
Do not underestimate the number of people who will fall for this because they want to fall for it. Remember that Schroeder is the leader who only got re-elected by shamelessly exploiting anti-American sentiment in Germany and I will not at all surprised to see him successfully spin this out until at least the next election.
Meanwhile, our own Chancellor Gordon Brown is due to announce his annual budget on Wednesday following a year of massive tax increases and looming redundancies. He is under pressure for sure but now he has a golden bridge. I can see it now, Gordon will shrug his meaty shoulders, sigh and assure the public that ‘if it had not been for the war…..’.
Good.
The longer the German people can be deluded into blaming people other than Schroder, the nlonger they’ll suffer under Schroder’s mismanagement.
I can’t think of a more fitting fate for the German people after they elected Schroder on his anti-American platform. May they have 15% unemployment and -3% annual growth for each of the next five years.
There’s one great thing about failed ideoligues (in this case, Socialism). They fail. Regardless of who is blamed, and how much people people Schroeder, as long as they continue to practice Socialism, their economy will lag behind the US econmy.
Eventually, the Germans will figure out that they can’t blame 10 years of recessions on a 4 week war.
Old news, he and his minions were already setting the german people up for that excuse.
This may not work as well as the politicos think. Here on the Left Coast of California the Democratic governor, Gray Davis, tried to shift the blame for his disasterous energy policies onto “greedy oil companies” and Enron. He still got less than 50% of the vote last fall against a very weak Republican opponent. I think most voters asked themselves why, out of 50 states, California was the only one having hugeproblems (and a 35 billion dollar budget deficit).
As I understand it, Britain is poised to overtake Germany as the world’s third largest economy. If you guys (and us guys) can keep the pigs out of the trough, and if the Japanese economy continues to devour itself, the immediate economic future, at least, is looking pretty anglo.