what the german secretary of defense said was: "At present I rule out the deployment of German troops in Iraq. In general, however, there is no one who can predict developments in Iraq in such a way that he could make a such a binding statement" (of course, nobody can predict the future, duh!)

but immediately after that story came out, chancellor schroeder phoned his secretary and chastized him, after that phonecall struck came out and said: "Es bleibt bei unserer Irakpolitik. Es wird keinen deutschen Soldaten auf irakischem Boden geben. Da hat sich die Haltung der Bundesregierung überhaupt nicht geändert." (our policy on iraq remains. there will be no german troops in iraq. the position of the federal government on this has not changed at all.) [link]

schroeder and his government even sent out their own statements to counter any speculations about germany wobbling on iraq: "Es wird keine deutschen Soldaten im Irak geben. So wie das in der Vergangenheit festgelegt ist, gilt das in Zukunft." (there will be no german soldiers in iraq, as it has been stated in the past, so it is valid in the future.) the whole administration has crept out of their holes to counter strucks 'wildly overinterpretated' answer. [link]