Two articles, a long one in the NY Times and a shorter, somewhat less confident one in The Guardian, take the German government to task for not joining the coalition bombing and enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. The papers quote leading German newspapers and former politicians stating that the decision not to participate in the action over Libya was a grand mistake. The primary reason why Germany should join the action--because everyone else is doing it.
No compelling case is made concerning the Libyan people, the future of democracy, or the humanitarian suffering to be averted. Instead the argument runs like this: all your friends are in the coalition, you should join as well, otherwise you won't be invited next time there is a party (or seat on the UN Security Council, permanent or otherwise). I have gone to parties with the thought "If I don't go this time, I won't get invited back." Lame excuse to get me out of the house, but sometimes I wind up having fun. The same reason can not and should not be the basis for armed military intervention.
Merkel and Westerwelle are spoiling their relations with France, England, Turkey and the US. Never mind that the French have abstained from participating in any number of NATO endeavors over the life of the alliance. True, Westerwelle is probably more interesting in giving himself the profile of an independent-minded foreign secretary, one who does not cave in to allied pressure but who weighs the situation for himself. Yes, Westerwelle is copying Gerhard Schroeder's trick of abstaining from US military actions in the Middle East. It worked brilliantly for Schroeder when he ran against George Bush in Germany; it probably won't get Westerwelle as many points running against Obama in the upcoming election.
Aside from these tactical calculations, there is the real democratic point that a very large majority of the German population is opposed to German military intervention in Libya. The Guardian acknowledges that Germans really don't want to go to war again and that the Afghanistan expedition is profoundly unloved in Germany. The NY Times wants to argue past this fact. Neither article considers whether British or American popular opinion supports military engagement in Libya.
It is almost as if the two newspapers are advocating that Germany, as well as other governments, should ignore the popular, anti-militarist opinion of their own populace even as NATO is supposedly fighting to defend the democratic will of the Libyan people. Ignore democratic will in order to defend it.
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