Word: germane
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With polls predicting that German parliamentary elections on Sept. 27 could propel the Free Democrats into government as a coalition partner with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, Westerwelle now looks within reach of a job at least as serious as his demeanor. Such an outcome would represent a substantial shift in German politics. Governing with the Social Democrats since 2005, Chancellor Merkel, though firmly on the center-right in most questions, has often tacked to the left to preserve her coalition. She has said that she would prefer to govern with the FDP, but that would recast the Social Democrats...
Westerwelle espouses the economic liberalism that has always defined the FDP, and under his eight-year command he has positioned his party as the champion of the Mittelstand, Germany's formidable family-owned companies. "When a big company gets into difficulty, the German eagle comes to the rescue. When a Mittelstand company gets into trouble, the vultures circle," Westerwelle said in May. His recipe for growth: encourage private investment and cut taxes. "You can sign 100 stimulus programs but if investing doesn't gain momentum, the economy won't get better," he says...
...permitted to initiate the fight, German forces in July launched their biggest operation since World War II to clear Chahar Dara district, a Pashtun insurgent stronghold west of Kunduz city where hundreds of fighters travel openly in pickup trucks and demand money and food villagers. But, says local resident Abdul Matin, 28, the militants simply filtered back into the area when the Germans returned to base and police are nowhere in sight. The insurgent efforts accelerated ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections, which the Taliban had vowed to disrupt. President Hamid Karzai's running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim...
...harm to civilians is a mission priority, even if it means letting the Taliban slip away from time to time. "We take extra care and would rather save the fight for another day than risk killing one innocent person," he says. "That's not how we operate here." (Another German officer, who asked not to be named, insisted the damage done by past U.S. airstrikes has made "everyone's job more difficult...
More and more, however, the fight is coming to the Germans. Some analysts even speculate the Taliban is deliberately ramping up hostilities ahead of the Sept. 27 German election, much as they intimidated Afghan voters last month. On Saturday, a day after the airstrike, three German soldiers were injured when a car packed with explosives exploded next to a passing convoy three miles outside of Kunduz. Indeed, Berlin's continued role in Afghanistan has become the crux of a heated public debate back in Germany. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister bidding to oust chancellor Angela Merkel, has openly called...