German Perfidy

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini (whom Arafat claimed as his uncle) meets with Hermann Goering in Berlin, 1941.

In spring 2003, many reports confirmed that cash-strapped Russian, French, and German defense firms had casually helped Saddam fortify his defenses. The German specialty -- surprise -- was underground bunkers. Indeed, terrorists have been operating out of a lavish bunker near Fallujah; Col. Dave Hunt says it's German.

U.S. Marines said yesterday they had discovered a massive underground bunker complex with 50 caches of weapons and ammunition and living quarters fitted out with air conditioning, a kitchen and showers.

The Marines said the bunker complex, discovered over the past four days in Anbar province west of Baghdad, included a recently used "insurgent lair" containing air-conditioned quarters and high-tech military equipment, including night-vision goggles.

The bunker was found cut from a rock quarry in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Marines said the facility was 170 yards wide and 275 yards long. In its rooms were "four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner. Other rooms within the complex were filled with weapons and ammunition," the Marines said.

The weapons included "numerous types of machine guns, ordnance including mortars, rockets and artillery rounds, black uniforms, ski masks, compasses, log books, night-vision goggles and fully charged cell phones."

Is the picture over the top? Sure. But this is what you get when socialists run a government as if money grows on trees. German unemployment is now up to 12%; annual growth is negative, i.e., the German economy is contracting; and burdensome taxes and regulations crush incentive, initiative, and entrepreneurship more than ever. Naturally, for-profit firms take business wherever they can find it.

Schroeder was re-elected in 2002 on a bitterly anti-American platform; his policies have amounted to a self-inflicted Versailles treaty. Can Kohl protege Angela Merkel oust Schroeder and fix it? Maybe. Will we hear demands for the German government to apologize for allowing this to happen? Certainly not. We have accidentally urine-flecked Qur'ans and the Michael Jackson verdict to worry about.