War and peace and the Greens of Germany.

• Author: Grossman, Victor
• Position: Green political party

The color green is not usually associated with anger. But some leaders of the Green political party in Germany have turned purple with rage in recent months. And they are still simmering. The party of the Greens is not the same as the related party in the USA or other countries. True, when it developed in West Germany during the 1970s and 1980s it was a militant fighting outfit devoted to environmental protection, feminism, anti-fascism, social improvements and pacifism as well as to opposing atomic energy plants. In those days, it was a leading party on the left, and its unusually informal clothing, taking babies to meetings, and male and female members busy knitting during conferences were ridiculed in the press, but brought some fresh wind into the stuffy legislatures of the day.

Then there was a split between the so-called Fundies--the fundamentalists, who insisted on left-wing goals and slogans like socialism--and the Realos, the realists, the pragmatic wing of the party. The latter won out, and many leftists quit. They were partially replaced after 1990 by members of the "Alliance 90" from East Germany, made up of intellectuals who had been active in bringing about the downfall of the East German government and who were hardly leftist in their views.

It became easier for the Greens to move upwards in the political scene, winning seats in provincial legislatures and then in the Bundestag. In 1998, when the Social Democratic Party (SPD) needed a junior partner to gain a majority in the Bundestag, the Greens became part of the government coalition under Gerhard Schroeder, and were granted three Cabinet posts, including the important Foreign Minister job held by Joschka Fischer.

Sadly, their years in office, lasting until 2005, robbed them of any last claims to political virginity. They made one compromise after another, joining in economic reforms which were devastating to millions of the jobless and even supporting the bombing of Serbia in the name of "humanitarianism."

Like Schroeder they did oppose the war in Iraq (though not the huge US bases in Germany which serve the invasion) but most Green deputies in the Bundestag have continually supported German involvement in the military struggle in Afghanistan. Alleged reconstruction efforts by German soldiers have thus far been restricted to more pacified areas in the north. They have not been able to accomplish much in the way of reconstruction--or in training Afghan police who often...