The Allies' Mindless Bickering

MUNICH -- The photograph in the German newspaper said it all. It showed U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld meeting Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, at a big defense conference here -- their hands clasped in a show of friendship but their eyes averted.

"The art of allies looking past each other," read the photo caption in German. And unfortunately, nearly a year after the diplomatic cataclysm of the Iraq war, that's still the true state of the transatlantic relationship.

Despite all the happy talk of the past month about how U.S.-European relations are on the mend, the reality is that the Atlantic partnership today is more a matter of habit and history than of action. The leading member of the alliance, the United States, is in serious trouble in Iraq, yet key "allies" such as France and Germany are doing essentially nothing to help. That's unacceptable.

If this disarray continues, it could prove even more dangerous than it was a year ago. That's because aggressive European help is now essential in creating a stable, independent Iraqi nation. The American occupation is scheduled to end in July; unless it is bolstered by the United Nations politically and by NATO militarily, Iraq will descend into chaos and civil war.

Americans and Europeans understand how big the stakes are, but they're still stuck in the lose-lose land of schadenfreude. Fixing the alliance and forming a united front on Iraq is everyone's number two priority. The top priority -- for Paris, Berlin, London, Moscow and Washington -- is proving they were right in the positions they took a year ago.

What's frustrating is that everyone says the right things even as they continue to do the wrong ones. "Regardless of our opinion of the war, we have to win the peace together or we will all lose together," Fischer said in the opening speech to the Munich Conference on Security Policy. Yet the German foreign minister voiced "deep skepticism" about sending NATO forces to Iraq and said Germany wouldn't send its own forces in any event.

"Today our need is to jointly search [for] a way out of the Iraqi crisis," said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. The words were there, but not the music.

And, it must be said, Rumsfeld didn't make it easy for the Europeans to put aside the past and get on with it. Still the scrappy ex-wrestler, he'll be darned if he'll show the other guys how tired he is -- or ask for their help in a way that might actually get them to respond. He began his speech with a zinger directed at his host, Fischer, describing the German's dissenting comments about Iraq a year ago as "amusing." Americans who had seen an advance text were speculating whether he would deliver the line -- but of course Rummy did, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Rumsfeld answered questions in that free-form, almost-out-of-control style that makes him the most entertaining, but also the most accident-prone, personality in the Bush administration. "Any monkey looking down from Mars" would understand that the Atlantic alliance will endure because it is based on shared values, he insisted. But he didn't give the homo sapiens in the audience much to work with.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the current situation is that Europeans and Americans now seem to have precisely the same formula for dealing with the broad crisis of the Middle East -- yet they can't agree to agree.

Fischer opened the conference with a call for a new transatlantic initiative to engage the Arab world in openness, economic interdependence and anti-terrorism. Simultaneously, the Bush administration is reportedly drawing up its own plan to promote democracy in the "greater Middle East," which President Bush will announce at the G-8 summit in June.

These initiatives are precisely what the Middle East needs. Yet Americans and Europeans were grumbling here privately that each side was trying to steal a march. Sadly, that's a true snapshot of the Atlantic alliance at the moment: allies who are playing for the audience rather than really talking to each other and solving problems.

Iraq is slipping toward violent fragmentation, and a decisive European-American commitment is essential to fill the post-July political vacuum. This isn't a task for the fainthearted; the situation in Iraq will probably get worse before it gets better, and the risks for Europeans will be as deadly as for the Americans there now.

Is the alliance up to the task? No more we-told-you-so speeches, please, or empty evocations of partnership. If the Europeans mean it when they say failure is not an option in Iraq, then they need to get to work now. And the Americans need to graciously accept their help.

davidignatius@washpost.com