You can always ask. And ask we did.

The United States has made a formal request to Germany to take in some prisoners held at its military prison in Guantanamo Bay, a spokesman for Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Sunday.

Too bad they have already said no before ever being asked, à la Gerhard Schroeder, so don’t hold your breath or anything. It’s not like the Germans ever held their breath when it came to their outrage about Gitmo, of course. But now that they have the golden opportunity to right some of those dreadful, horrible wrongs, well, they’ve gotten quite quiet about the matter.

“The United States bears the primary responsibility here.”

Full support? As in the full metal jacket kind?

“The Taliban fighters know that military engagement in Afghanistan is especially controversial in Germany. They also know that the political leadership in Berlin has done little to prepare its own country for an ugly mission with more injuries and deaths. German politicians, to speak in general terms, are afraid of Afghanistan — and of (this fall’s) German election. Taliban fighters know all this, which makes Germany a ripe target. Now the government’s insistence on a two-tiered Afghan mission has come back to haunt it. There are no two tiers in Afghanistan — no safe, good-hearted mission in the north as opposed to the mean mission in the south. The German military is in Afghanistan to secure the country. To achieve this goal it will need the full support of Germany’s politicians.”