Last week, when asked about the looting going on in Baghdad, Sec Rumsfeld replied that it was an expected thing for a repressed people to do when it has been freed from a repressive government. He then compared it to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It turns out that a lot of Germans are really pissed at this. Maybe my history is wrong, but I think the differences are forgivable:
Iraqis died in a war from an outside aggressor
East Germans died trying to cross the no-man zone
Iraqi resistance left the country to avoid the murder of themselves, their friends, and families.
East Germans weren't allowed to leave so the pressure increased.
The United States applied direct pressure that toppled the Saddam regime.
The United States applied direct pressure to keep West Berlin alive, allowing the East Berlin pressure to increase.
The Germans can be proud that there wasn't a war to liberate them. It's a good thing too, because such a war would have been MUCH more devastating than Operation Iraqi Freedom. But I don't think they have much to be pissed about here.
(attached is a link to the chinadaily that brings up the topic)
Germans dismiss Rumsfeld's Berlin-Baghdad comparison