Relations between the United States and Germany have been quite complicated in recent years, veering from the highs of the early Obama administration to the lows of the current accusations that the CIA had recruited German workers to snoop on Angela Merkel’s government.
When President Obama first visited Berlin in 2008, he was greeted by hundreds of thousands of Germans who viewed him as an historic figure that would lead the United States away from the missteps of George W. Bush. After years of hostility between Berlin and Washington, the German political establishment viewed Obama as a cosmopolitan politician who would work with Europe instead of ignoring it.
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A lot has changed since then; revelations about the NSA targeting Merkel and the CIA espionage plot have sunk German-American relations to historic depths. However, that hasn’t stopped a prominent German journalist from suggesting that Obama has more in common with German politicians than many believe.
In an op-ed in The New York Times, Clemens Wergin, the foreign editor of the newspaper group Die Welt, suggested that Obama’s international policies more closely align with those of moralizing yet passive German politicians.
“At the height of the Syria conflict and just after yet another of Barack Obama’s speeches, I suddenly understood the problem with this American president and his foreign policy. He sounded just like a German politician: all moral outrage, but little else to help end one of the most devastating civil wars of our age,” Wergin wrote. “President Obama, I thought with a sigh, has become European.”
The accusation that Obama was European in his political style has been around since the Berlin speech in 2008. It’s a familiar charge made by Republicans who want to paint well-educated and globetrotting Democrats as out of touch with middle class Americans.
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Obama brushed off the charge in 2008 on his way to a monumental victory. But a close examination of his record shows that Wergin’s criticism is often right; on many occasions during many crises, Obama has favored words over actions.
For instance, Obama promised action in Syria if evidence of chemical weapons emerged. When evidence did emerge, he backed off.
Obama also withdrew American troops from Iraq in 2011. He watched from afar as the country descended into chaos. Now, as the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) threatens to split the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending warplanes to Baghdad, while Obama dithers.