A Tepid New Role for Germany

When the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark chose to fly bombing missions over Iraq alongside the U.S. against the terrorist forces of Islamic State, that decision represented a very confrontational taking of sides.

Here were three small democracies assertively accepting both the heightened risk of terrorist reprisals at home and Barack Obama ’s intention to “destroy” ISIS through a campaign that could take years.

Germany, the three countries’ big NATO ally and neighbor, didn’t join them. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sept. 11 that “we neither have been asked to do something—nor would we do it.”

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