The first serious casualty of the German election mashup is Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who formally retreated from any leadership position yesterday with a gentle jab at Gerhard Schröder and a rather sharper jab at the press. "The nice thing about this decision is that I don't have to deal with you anymore," he said to journalists on his way out, smiling. Fischer made it clear that he saw little chance of the Greens being part of Germany's next government and said he no longer wanted to lead the party. He did, however, indicate that, in the unlikely event of a "traffic light" coalition (SPD, Greens and FDP) being formed, he would be available for a possible ministry position. "I want back the freedom I traded for power 20 years ago," is how he reportedly put it behind closed doors.

His withdrawal suggests that life under Angela Merkel as chancellor would be intolerable for Joschka Fischer, and that continued life under Gerhard Schröder also looks (to him, if not to the chancellor) impossible. "There is no doubt that we do not have a majority," he told reporters yesterday.

Fischer will now hold (at most) a back-bench seat in the German parliament, an outfit he once disparaged as "an unbelievable gathering of alcoholics which stinks of plain old schnapps." He started political life as a street-fighting protester against the Vietnam War in the '60s and '70s, then entered office, famously, in sneakers, as a state-level environmental minister in 1985. His eloquent and sometimes reckless tongue made him popular and allowed him -- paradoxically -- to lead the Green Party out of the margins of German politics. As Gerhard Schröder's junior coalition partner in 1998, he became Germany's foreign minister, and his most prominent international moment may have come in 2001, when he told American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what he thought about his intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"Excuse me," he said to Rumsfeld at a European defense conference in early 2003, with cameras rolling. "I am not convinced. I cannot go to the public and say these are the reasons, because I don't believe in them." For many Germans it was a sign of national independence: a rare and dramatic example of a postwar German leader resisting an overture from the United States.

Fischer's retreat doesn't rule out a government role for the Greens; he says he'll continue to discuss coalition possibilities over the next couple of weeks. But it does show how Schroeder's snap election has changed the political climate. Fischer, sensing bad weather, is hopping elsewhere, to give the tadpoles in his own party a chance.

Showdown Over Iran's Nukes

The European Union on Tuesday warned about "offenses and lapses" in Iran's nuclear program and suggested that the UN Security Council should take up the case by investigating Tehran's nuclear sites. Iran bit back by saying it would resist any sudden inspections. Russia and China moved in behind the mullahs, and now a showdown seems to be looming.

The UN Security Council can impose sanctions against any nation that belongs to the nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty. Tehran threatened to pull out of the treaty altogether if the "language of force" continues, and Russia and China both want to keep the EU and Iran at the negotiating table.

America has wanted to refer Iran to the Security Council for months, but the Europeans insisted on diplomacy. Now Germany, France, and Britain seem to have lost their patience, and their draft resolution yesterday asking the Security Council to investigate Iran's "offenses and lapses" turns up international pressure on the mullahs to prove they have no weapons program.

Iran, of course, sits on an ocean of oil and natural gas, but claims to need nuclear energy. Ali Laridjani, Iran's chief negotiator, has pointed to U.S. policy toward North Korea, which also involved years of intense diplomatic pressure but ended in an acceptance by the Americans that North Korea should be allowed to run a civil nuclear program. "We're asking for the same right," he said, "so the West should also accept our demand for the civil use of nuclear energy."

Meanwhile, in North Korea ...

Nuclear talks with Kim Jong Il have muddied again. Less than 24 hours after negotiators announced a "major breakthrough" with North Korea over its nuclear program, Pyongyang has backpedaled.

On Monday, North Korea agreed "in principle" to quit building nuclear weapons, and the U.S. agreed (also in principle) to recognize the government in Pyongyang and to back a peace treaty between North and South Korea that would formally end the Korean War. (Shooting stopped after an armistice treaty in 1953.) Everyone has celebrated the breakthrough -- "If we weren't in the middle of election results," wrote the German newspaper Die Welt Tuesday, "North Korea would be front and center" -- and it looked as if Kim Jong Il would let in all-important arms inspectors, to make sure he couldn't build any warheads.