German public opinion on the Iraq conflict: A passing crisis with the USA or a lasting departure?

The Germans did not reject American policies toward Iraq only in the immediate run-up to the war in 2003. As this paper shows, they had already viewed with mistrust the American government's initial reactions to the attacks of September 11, 2001. During the war in Afghanistan this escalated into outright rejection of the US position. Public opinion was thus already opposed to a war in Iraq just as the issue was beginning to take on more urgency on the international agenda, and the German government's comments on this issue in the summer of 2002 reflected this. Were the critical views voiced in connection with the war a sign of an ever-growing divide between the German and American populations? While the inclination towards moral relativism among Germans stands in clear contrast to the increasing moral rigorism among the US population, German reactions to US policy in Iraq were not directly connected to value orientations of this kind, but were essentially a short-term emotional response to the political events of the day.