He dismissed as "biased and unjust" a U.N.Human Rights Council report that accused Israel of war crimes during its December Gaza offensive, saying his country was acting in self-defense against militant rocket fire.
VOA: standard.2009.09.24
Neither Britain's small, professional forces nor Germany's large, conscript forces were designed to fight an offensive land war against a medium-sized European power.
The prospect of having to condone the involvement of German soldiers in what would be their first offensive mission since the second world war might now, some believe, prove the last straw.