THE AXIS OF WEASELS IMPLODES?

BERLIN – German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Wednesday he hoped Saddam Hussein’s government would collapse quickly, marking a stark turnaround from Germany’s previous opposition to regime change as a goal of the U.S.-led war.

As a reader notes, this is about as useful — and about as obviously self-interested — as the Soviet Union’s belated declaration of war on Japan, in the summer of 1945. But it certainly leaves Jacques Chirac in an embarrassing position — though France is doing its best to pretend that it always opposed Saddam, too, really.

This is a major diplomatic defeat for Chirac and Schroeder, no matter how you spin it. What’s more Jacques Delors is praising Tony Blair, and taking shots at Chirac now. Heh.

UPDATE: Tabula Rasa says this is evidence that Germany’s stance was always an opportunistic, not a principled one. Yeah.

Meanwhile Megan McArdle wonders what Chirac was thinking.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s the Soviet Declaration of War on Japan, dated August 8, 1945 — after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A number of readers think I’m being unfair to the Soviets here. (Note: no one has emailed to say I’m unfair to the Germans!) Reader Jim Ingram writes:

The timing of the Soviet declaration of war on Japan was in accordance with the Yalta Agreement which specified that the USSR would enter the war with Japan three months after the conclusion of the war in Europe. Germany surrendered May 8, 1945. Of course, Stalin was an opportunist when it came to keeping agreements as well as breaking them. This last minute declaration enabled the Russians to make a grab for some disputed islands between Russia and Japan at essentially no cost to themselves.

Fair enough.

UPDATE: Here’s more pro-war sentiment in Germany. Here’s a link to the Google translation, but reader Holger Uhl sends this better one:

Biting criticism of the (German) Chancellor

German Chancellor Schroeder, with his peace initiative “betrayed the UN”. The 69 year old publisher of the “Tagespiegel in Berlin who had been the Cultural editor of Der Spiegel Magazine for decades said: “This war must now be ended in the favor of the Americans.”

The present war ” will prevent future and more tragic wars”, he declared. It was a mistake even during the first Gulf war in 1991 not to go after regime change then.

Karasek explained his reasoning towards the USA policy as follows: The Americans were those that built the Germany in which I like to live.” That alone is enough for me to support the USA.

Thanks.

STILL MORE: Brian Micklethwait reminds Megan McArdle that all politics is local.