Is Germany taking a small step toward getting in touch with its inner Mars, along with a few other European nations?

While no one in Europe is predicting the death of NATO or the European Union, the damage is evident in the renewed willingness of Germany and France to consider a military policy separate from either institution....

...[Chancellor Gerhard] Schröder ... has developed a concept of "core Europe" or "more Europe" in which France and Germany, but not Britain, will lead Western Europe toward a common defense and foreign policy.

The first test of this concept is the meeting scheduled for April 29, when Germany and France, along with Belgium and Luxembourg, are to discuss closer military cooperation. Backers of the war including Britain, Italy and Spain were not invited, a snub that can only deepen the rift within the European Union, which has thus far failed to make headway on its grand vision of a common foreign and defense policy, including a joint rapid reaction military force of 60,000 soldiers.

...What is needed now, said [Daniel] Gros of the Center for European Policy Studies, is "a European politician with some vision who comes up and says to everyone in Europe, `Put together one percent of your G.D.P. for a common strike force.' That would mean $80 billion to $100 billion. We could do something with that."

--New York Times

We'll probably have six more years of petty Bush triumphalism and contempt toward Europe. Think that might be enough time to persuade Germany and other Bush-wary European nations to start rearming in earnest? And if so, should we really not worry about where this could lead?