German standoffishness toward the EU is now based in law: a 2009 ruling by Germany's Constitutional Court allowed it to ratify the Lisbon treaty but limited further transfers of power to Brussels.

ECONOMIST: Germany's role in the world

Something else we noted in one of the towns that had been freed from Iraqi control was that the local people, who are Kurds, greeted the Kurdish fighters as well as the American soldiers with no standoffishness at all.

CNN: Ben Wedeman: Iraqis abandon northern ridge