More than five years ago, the USA and their allies decided to free Iraq of one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. This victory was, as the editors of the journal Bahamas pointed out in their 2003 congratulation entitled Bush – the Man of Peace! also a defeat for Germany, whose Goverment in a frightening unity with its people opposed the war 2003 as a revenge for the disgrace 1945.
Actually, it was the first time since World War II that the Germans constituted as a Volksgemeinschaft again: left-wing extremists as well as neo-nazi groups and the average citizen cheered Chancellor Schröder for opposing the „warmonger“ George W. Bush. The battle cry of the countless peace demonstrations – „No more war!“ – and statements like „war is the worst crime against humanity“ told what was the real motivation for a people, who could once only be stopped with guns and tanks from annihilating millions of human beings.
Even if it was not stated explicitly: The peace-demonstration against the Iraq War in Germany were in fact nothing less than the delegitimization of the liberation of Auschwitz.
This was also expressed when the first airstrikes against targets in Baghdad were flown and there was a consensus in Germany, that those were the same „Anglo-American air gangsters“ (a neologism from Joseph Goebbels) who once „destroyed innocent german cities“. Another very popular slogan of the Friedensvolksgemeinschaft was „No blood for oil!“, once established by Nazi-publicist Anton Zischka to show the dichotomy between the „pure aryan blood“ and the black viscous oil, symbolizing the „Jewish-American capitalism“.

GI with a strong statement. Even though the opposition to the Iraq war was also dubious in other countries, the German stance was just disgusting.

It was also noteworthy, when around that time 82 Million Germans turned into experts for International law, who definitely know that the USA and especially the Bush-Administration were violating International law without ever reading the UN-Resolutions 678 and 1441.
This public discourse was characteristical for a country, which had no problems at all with German companies like Water Engineering Trading delivering toxic gas which was used by the Baath-regime to murder more than 5,000 Kurds in Halabja – German politicians followed the infamous dictum of Kofi Annan „Can I trust Saddam Hussein? I think I can do business with him“ while simultaneously the Germans hallucinated America as the biggest proliferator for Iraq, even though this had nothing to do with reality.
The hypocrisy reached its climax, when Saddam Hussein was finally caught and sentenced to death. People who were not interested at all in the victims of Saddam’s cruel regime, who negate the universality of the human rights and declare a dictatorship as the „natural“ political constitution for Arabic people were demonstrating against the death penalty for a mass murderer.
More than five years later, the commentatorship has become silent. After the first shock in 2003, when against all prognoses the Iraqis did not want to die for their Führer (a behavior, that was totally inapprehensible for most Germans), there was at least some satisfaction in Germany, when al Qaeda, Mahdi Army, Badr Brigade and other terrorist rackets killed many GIs and much more Iraqis. A wiseacre, cynical and spiteful undertone was formative for the german media coverage in the past years.
The spreading silence about the Iraq war now is also an evidence, that the USA and their allies won this war.

Thank you, America!