The current German election campaign has created some interesting echoes of World War II. In 1941, Germany, then as now, was full of denunciations of Jewish crimes against innocents (then, it was Germans, now it is Palestinians.) The other similarity is German support for Iraq. In 1941 that support was in return for Iraqi support of Germany's war efforts. Today, Germany supports Iraq because Germany does not want the dictatorship in Iraq attacked and deposed. Back then, Iraq was ruled by a monarchy. In 1941, Britain responded by sending in 40,000 troops and conquered Iraq within three weeks and occupied it for the rest of the war. What will happen to the current German/Iraq axis remains to be seen.