In a U.N. Security Council meeting on January 20, 2003, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said: ” ‘We are greatly concerned that a military strike against the regime in Baghdad [Iraq] would involve considerable and unpredictable risks for the global fight against terrorism.’ It would have ‘disastrous consequences,’ and Germany rejected the very idea.”
– Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Pages 432-433