Short Memory

Deutsche Welle maintains that German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s attendance at a brief ceremony during the 60th anniversary D-Day celebration absolves Germany of its World War ii guilt (June 7).

“In Germany we know who caused the war,” Schröder said at the victory celebrations. “We’re aware of our responsibility and take it seriously.” He added that Europeans “carry the responsibility so that war-mongering, war crimes and terrorism will have no chance elsewhere either.”

Schröder projected the EU into the role of global peacemaker—a role that has historically and inevitably fallen to the Anglo-Americans, and which Europe—traditional hotbed of strife, division and recurring war—has never possessed. How short is our view of history?