From the Financial Times
"Germany might deploy troops in Iraq if conditions there change, Peter Struck, the German defence minister, indicated on Tuesday in a gesture that appears to provide backing for John Kerry, the US Democratic presidential challenger.
Mr Struck also welcomed Mr Kerry's proposal that he would convene an international conference on Iraq including countries that opposed the war if he were to win next month's election.
Germany would certainly attend, Mr Struck said. 'This is a very sensible proposal. The situation in Iraq can only be cleared up when all those involved sit together at one table. Germany has taken on responsibilities in Iraq, including financial ones; this would naturally justify our involvement in such a conference.'"
Tell me again, Mr. President, about how you can't bring allies to the table if you're criticizing the war.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0b76459e-1c80-11d9-8d72-00000e2511c8.html
Update in extended section
As has been noted below in some comments near the bottom of the thread, today Defense Minister Struck stated that Germany has NOT reconsidered its position on troop deployment in Iraq. (Since I don't speak German I'm not sure what this story says, but someone was kind enough to translate the first paragraph for me, which I've posted below.)
http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID3697886_REF2,00.html
Defense minister Peter Struck ruled out a Bundeswehr deployment into
Iraq in the coming years. The SPD politician responded to reports of
differing comments, that caused confusion in the federal government on
Wednesday. "I clearly stated that absolutely no change in german
government policy is planned, concerning troops in Iraq." clarified
Struck on the ARD Tagesthemen news program.
If someone who speaks German would like to summarize the rest of the story and post below, that would be great.
Whether FT took Struck's statements out of context or if today's comments were a political move, I don't pretend to know. Regardless, I do not think that we read too much into the original FT story if we assume that a powerful European nation has just stated their clear willingness to work with a Kerry administration.
And if Bush is so busy talking to world leaders everyday, perhaps he should ask them not to lend their support to Kerry's proposed summit when speaking to the press.