RIGHT ON, HERR SCHR?EDER

Recent German opinion polls show that Chancellor Gerhard Schr?eder, after trailing badly in his campaign for re-election, has become the front-runner and likely will win in tomorrow’s vote. Most observers agree that what turned the vote around was his outspoken refusal to go along with President George W. Bush’s threat to go to war to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. “Never under my leadership,” Mr. Schr?eder said, would Germany join in the Bush “adventure,” even if supported by the United Nations.

Bush administration officials, trying to put together a new coalition to support “regime change” in Iraq, are busily accusing the German leader of pure political opportunism. Echoing their charges, The New York Times’ Berlin correspondent wrote that the chancellor “may just win the German election by running against America.” The headline read, “For Now, Trading Allies for Votes.”

Such sentiments, more properly published on the editorial page than the news columns, amount to an attack on the integrity and sincerity of the leader of an American ally. The German public, mindful of its disastrous history in World War II, is strongly anti-war. But Mr. Schr?eder has risked unpopularity in sending German troops into the 1999 Kosovo war and peacekeeping activities in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. German troops are serving alongside Americans in Afghanistan.

When it came to Iraq, Chancellor Schr?eder took an independent line, long before his re-election campaign was in trouble. He and his top officials argued consistently that there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was anywhere near developing nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. They argued, too, that a war against Iraq would disrupt the coalition against terrorism and could trigger a far wider world conflict. More recently, Mr. Schr?eder has noted that President Bush has switched the goal from getting international inspectors back into Iraq to a “regime change.”

Rather than accuse Chancellor Schr?eder of bad faith, the Bush administration would do better to take seriously his good sense and sober warnings. It should also value a healthy change in German-American relations. Until now, the relationship has been like a family in which father knows best and the children accept his wisdom. When the children grow up, they begin to make their own decisions, even though the parents may object. It is high time for German-American relations to grow up.