Germany's Schröder between a rock and a hard place

The Deutsche Welle (English) has an interesting take from Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin.

Der Tagesspiegel from Berlin found it hypocritical that Schröder was willing "to do away with solidarity with the Bush administration before the Iraq War," but at the same time "isn't willing to criticize Russia, despite all the state-sponsored terrorism in the Caucasus region." It upset the paper that "Schröder creates distance from the Americans, who make mistakes but share common values," but "exchanges hugs with the Russians, who clearly deny those values." The daily paper observed that "a conscience which stirs over American mistakes cannot be silent about Russia."

Hard to argue with that. Maybe that's why Schröder's Social Democrats aren't doing so well at the polls.