those wacky germans

I just can't get worked up about Germany and Schroeder and umlauts and things. Unlike Steven Den Beste, who seems to have worked himself into a righteous fury over statements by Schroder (which SDB later admits to being unable to verify), I share the pragmatic perspective as espoused recently in Slate - Schroder talked tough against the US for the usual reason, purely domestic politics. And Stoiber would have been far far worse.

Brilliant observation by Marc Fisher, author of the Slate piece:

Bush, who expects nations to abide by the same rules of friendship that govern prep-school boys, is said to feel hurt and refused to make a congratulatory phone call to Schr�der.

but there's a lot more than just witticisms - plenty of good analysis of the history of German relations with the US and the domestic political scene over there, which make the Slate essay well worth the read.