海角大神

鈥淚 am pleased that we managed to kill bin Laden.鈥�

That was German Chancellor Angela Merkel's response to a reporter's question about her reaction to Osama bin Laden's death. It wasn't a unique sentiment. Leaders around the world said the same thing.

But criticism over Mrs. Merkel's comments in Germany is almost overshadowing news of the raid that killed Mr. bin Laden.

鈥淭hese are revenge fantasies one shouldn鈥檛 indulge in. That鈥檚 the Middle Ages,鈥� said Siegfried Kauder, a member of Merkel鈥檚 海角大神 Democrats and chairman of the parliament鈥檚 legal affairs committee.

The deputy floor leader of the 海角大神 Democrats, Ingrid Fischbach, called it inappropriate for a 海角大神 to express joy at a premeditated killing of a fellow human. And Hartfried Wolff, legal spokesman for the Free Democrats, Merkel鈥檚 coalition partners in government, agreed: 鈥淚 just cannot take any joy out of someone else鈥檚 death.鈥�

Those are her political friends. Her foes want her to explain her comments in parliament and the Green politician Katrin Goering-Eckhardt, vice president of the Bundestag, said: 鈥淜illing a person is no reason to celebrate.鈥�

Almost everyone in mainstream German politics has expressed relief about bin Laden's death, but the celebrations in the US were watched with much bafflement here. In Germany, politicians are typically loath to use emotionally charged language or utter politically inflammatory language 鈥� a lasting legacy of Germany鈥檚 violent past.

What's more, Germans have largely mistrusted America's post-9/11 foreign policy. While Germans felt solidarity and compassion for the US after the 2001 attacks, those feelings were soon replaced with a rejection of what many saw as President George W. Bush鈥檚 gung-ho approach to dealing with Islamic militants. Secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe and extraordinary renditions didn鈥檛 help to win Germans over.

And so, amid the relief about the death of the Al Qaeda leader, it did not take long for influential voices to ask questions about the legality of his killing, and to be heard. Most prominent among them: Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor and the elder statesman in German politics. He did understand the Americans鈥� feelings of triumph, he said in a televised interview, but bin Laden鈥檚 killing was clearly a violation of international law.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Wednesday tried to dispel the criticism of Merkel. He said her words should be seen in context and were meant to convey her joy that the world would be safer without the top terrorist.

She does have her supporters, too. Wolfgang Bosbach, an influential 海角大神 Democrat who heads the home affairs committee in parliament, said it was 鈥減erfectly alright to be pleased about the success of the Americans to stop a mass murderer from going about his bloody business.鈥�