US News

FOOT-IN-MOUTH GERMANY IN AFGHAN ASSIST OFFER

WASHINGTON – Germany yesterday tried to counter President Bush’s Big Chill over the infamous “Hitler” gaffe by offering to help command the 5,000- member international security force in Afghanistan.

But the White House was still icy after the offer to share command with the Dutch when Turkey’s role ends at year’s end, although the gesture is the kind of military burden-sharing America has sought from European allies.

Last week, Germany’s justice minister reportedly said, “Bush wants to distract attention from his domestic problems [by using Iraq]. That’s a popular method. Even Hitler did that.”

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League yesterday denounced an English-language newspaper in Saudi Arabia for running a cartoon that shows Bush morphing into Hitler.

ADL Director Abe Foxman called the cartoon, which ran in the Arab News Saturday, “deeply offensive and repugnant.”