 Although Schwanitz subsequently served in a coalition government under Merkel, the context of the 2005 election was one in which their respective parties were competing nationally for votes, and the issue of whether Germany should send troops to Iraq in defiance of a pacifist tradition established since 1945, and in support of the US army, was one seriously divisive issue between mainstream parties of the moderate left (SPD) and the moderate right (CDU).The poster, intended to highlight Angela Merkel's position on the Iraq War, instead attracted national media criticism of Schwanitz.The hard hitting image of American coffins was considered tasteless