Trans-Atlantic Thaw

The trans-Atlantic ice age is over. If anyone still needed proof that the US on one side, and France and Germany on the other, want to start a new chapter in their respective bilateral relationships, then they got it this past week.

The East German physicist, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the son of a Hungarian immigrant, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, each took different approaches to their meetings with US President George W. Bush.

In a speech to the US Congress, Sarkozy pointed out that the two countries had had a long history together prior to the disagreement over the Iraq War. He practically fell over himself with enthusiasm for the United States and left out the Iraq topic altogether, just to be on the safe side. He has to be careful, however, not to take former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's place as the American president's "poodle." After all, those who wish to have influence on someone must be able to look them in the eye.

Angela Merkel is cleverer. She didn't accept the invitation to the ranch -- and its accompanying presidential honor -- until her relationship to Bush had solidified and she had given him her opinion on numerous occasions. The president has no problem with that. He's proven more than once that he sticks by those who he's taken a liking to -- in good times and bad.

It's not only Merkel and Sarkozy's differing personalities and destinies that contribute to the closing of ranks. Everyone knows that Bush's days are numbered. Both Sarkozy and Merkel will most likely have to do deal with his successor and are interested in setting the course now.

In his last year in office, the American president is trying to save what's left to save. He continually emphasizes that he doesn't make decisions based on opinion polls and that conclusions aren't made until much later. Nevertheless, he doesn't want to leave with nothing to show for his time in office.

Both sides have recognized that things don't work without the other. The US is and will remain the only superpower that has the resources and the will to get involved in crisis areas. But without influential allies, it can't be successful. Simply writing off "old" Europe, as former US Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld did, doesn't work. Still, the countries of "new" Europe -- with all due respect -- have a long road ahead of them before they even remotely attain the political clout that Germany and France have.

Europeans have recognized that they can't solve crises alone -- from Kosovo's status and the conflict in the Middle East to global climate change. They need the United States. Even in the nuclear conflict with Iran. Those who take the path of diplomacy are more successful when they have a nation on their side that, if all else fails, won't be afraid to send its soldiers to war.

Christina Bergmann is a correspondent for Deutsche Welle in Washington, DC (kjb)