Huh?

Germany’s President Horst Koehler has thrown in the towel for getting heat about having said this:

“In my view, however, I think our society is on the right path to fully understanding that a country of our size, export-oriented as it is, and therefore dependent upon foreign trade… In a country like ours we must also know that in doubt, in an emergency, military intervention will also be necessary to protect our interests. To keep free trade routes open, for instance, to prevent regional instability, for example, these are things that would otherwise have a definite negative effect upon our trade, our jobs and our income. Everything should be open for discussion here, and I believe that we are making good progress to that end.”

My, how scandalous. How could the pacifist citizens of the world’s third largest weapons exporting nation possibly take such shocking and unsavoury presidential provocations like this sitting down? They couldn’t take it sitting down, of course, so Horst had to step down.

This is just too ridiculous for me. Somebody please tell me what I missed here.