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'I Don't Like War'

Bush Says Farewell to Germany

By Carsten Volkery

Mountain biking, barbeque and no demonstrations -- Bush's final visit to Germany was little more than a pleasant country outing. The president is trying to change his image, but the Germans aren't biting.

Now that George W. Bush is a lame duck, German politicians feel free to attack him, even those from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy expert for the CDU, said he won't miss Bush. His counterpart at the allied conservative Christian Social Union party, Theodor Freiherr von Guttenberg, said: "We're all looking forward to a new US president."

Bush's last visit to Germany has triggered a tirade of criticism from politicians and media commentators. Merkel seems to be the only politician who hasn't joined in.

During Wednesday's joint news conference with Bush after their meeting in Meseberg palace north of Berlin, one journalist asked her if she shared her party's view of Bush. An unpleasant question. Bush was standing right next to her, smiling. He's come to know the Germans and is well aware that he can't expect a wave of sympathy, not even on his farewell visit.

But he can rely on Angela. "Working together is fun," says the chancellor. The relationship between the two is friendly and direct, she adds, and it's possible to speak plainly with him.

She stresses that the two will carry on talking in Bush's remaining months in office and cites a long list of issues they still have to discuss, such as the Doha round of trade talks, the upcoming G-8 summit in Japan and Iran's nuclear program.

She wants to avoid the impression that Bush is no longer important. But she's already thinking of the time after Bush, as is the entire German public. His growing insignificance was evident in the fact that his fourth visit to Germany since the start of the Iraq war didn't attract much attention -- in stark contrast with the furious demonstrations against him in Mainz in 2005, in Merkel's home state in 2006 and at the G-8 conference in Heiligendamm last year.

This time he was flown straight from Berlin's Tegel airport to the German government's heavily protected guest house 70 kilometers north of the capital, deep in the countryside of Brandenburg in what center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper described as Germany's "Green Zone" -- a reference to the heavily guarded diplomatic quarter in Baghdad.

Not that the seclusion was necessary this time around. The only demonstrators reporters could see on their way up to Meseberg were a bunch of farmers who had parked their tractors on the side of the road and held up banners protesting against the sliding price of milk.

Merkel didn't want Bush in the capital. The official reason was that she didn't want to burden the people of Berlin with the massive security precautions that would have entailed. But also, one imagines, because it's easy to portray togetherness in a country setting. The stage-managed chumminess is routine by now. On Tuesday evening they dined together on Schnitzel and local asparagus and on Wednesday morning they went for a stroll in the blooming gardens of Meseberg palace.

The cameras were on hand to capture every gesture, every movement, even Bush's morning bicycle ride. The visit ended with a barbecue lunch. No wild boar this time around, just sausages.

Bush liked it anyway, as he always does. He praised the guest house as a "modest cottage by the lake," a similar comment to his remark at the G-8 summit at Heiligendamm last year. He joked with the German press, which claimed he didn't like asparagus. "They're wrong," he said: German asparagus is "fabulous."

But this time around, Bush also had another misconception to correct. "I don't like war," Bush said. It is one of the central messages that the president -- concerned about his legacy -- has brought with him to Europe this time around. In an interview with the British newspaper The Times, Bush went out of his way to criticize his own war rhetoric: He said it would have been better, if he hadn't spoken of capturing terrorists "dead or alive." Bush even expressed regret that many thought he was a "guy really anxious for war" in Iraq.

In Meseberg, he reiterated that his rhetoric had perhaps been a bit too bellicose prior to the Iraq invasion. But, Germans journalists wanted to know, did he regret the Iraq war? "I don't regret it at all", he responded. Saddam Hussein was no longer in power, Bush said, and the world was safer for it.

Almost by reflex, Bush's tone hardened when talking about this subject. He wasn't sure if the news had made it to Germany, he said, but significant progress has been made in Iraq. He liked the idea, he said, that he gave people in Iraq the chance to live in a free society.

'All Options are on the Table'

In short, it was not a new Bush who visited Germany on Wednesday. He spoke about the establishment of "young democracies" in Iraq and Afghanistan and thanked Germans for their help. Germany and the US had pursued the common goal of bringing peace to the Middle East, Bush said, as an alternative to the ideology of hate and murder. Merkel said cautiously that Germany had "a fundamental interest in a proper development" of Iraq and therefore was helping out in the training of police.

It is not coincidence that Bush's farewell tour through Europe should include Merkel. Since her days as leader of Germany's opposition during the administration of her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, she has counted as one of his supporters on this continent. After the trans-Atlantic ice age, kicked off by Schröder when he said "no" to the Iraq war, the Germany-US partnership has settled down again under Merkel. Bush too has shown more willingness in the latter half of his presidency to consult with his European partners.

The most important test of this new cooperation comes in the nuclear dispute with Iran. On this topic, Bush and Merkel in Meseberg once again demonstrated unity, adopting their usual roles: Bush threatened, while Merkel remained diplomatic. "All options are on the table," Bush responded to the question whether a war with Iran was an option during his last few months in office. It is his standard reply, always accompanied by the assurance that diplomacy is always the first option. Should Iran continue to be uncooperative, Bush warned, there would be further sanctions. Merkel struck a slightly more cautious note, but also did not rule out further sanctions. As his legacy, Bush would like to leave his successor at least a framework for solving the Iran problem.

Still, it is unlikely that Bush will succeed in correcting his public image as a war president. According to a new survey commissioned by German news channel N24, 77 percent of Germans rate his government's work as "bad." A similarly high number is hoping for a Democrat in the White House and is rooting for Iraq-war-opposer Barack Obama to become the next president.