Friday, April 8, 2005
It looks like the Administration is batting its eyes at Greece.
Washington Times: Greece identifies with U.S.
The conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has promised to adapt itself to U.S. policy affecting the area "as far as possible," and Athens has offered to host an international conference to promote peace in the Middle East...[Hopefully Mikis Theodorakis will not be part of the Greek delegation. -Sol]
...When Mr. Molyviatis was in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Greece as America's "best friend in the Balkans." In Athens, Mr. Zoellick referred to Greece as "a strategic partner" in efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East and the Balkans.
Greek officials think that an improvement in Greek-American relations and the setting of common goals coincides with what they perceive as a chill in Washington's attitude toward Turkey, a traditional rival of Greece.
Last month, Turkish media bristled over a claim of U.S. support for Kurdish nationalists and Turkey's general opposition to Washington's policies in Iraq. At the same time, a best-seller in Turkey was "Metal Storm," a novel about an imaginary U.S. invasion of Turkey...
I don't know but every Greek I know and everything I hear from Greece is socialist and far leftist.
They're vehemently anti-Israeli and Arabist... and they were among the most vocal from what I remember in protesting against the Iraqi war.
A Greek friend told me that the media in Greece is mainly controlled by the socialist and communist, and/or that they are the loudest members of the media.
Who knows... but I wouldn't hold my breath on any real friendship brewing with Greece. Plus they remember how Nixon sold out Cryprus as payment to the Turks.
Mike
Agreed. Count me as a skeptic. I think it's more a signal to the Turkish government that if they decide to play the anti-American card we can take our business elsewhere, but who knows for sure?
The Greeks here, I eat in diners every single day, were blatantly anti-American in the months of the spring and summer of 2002. Some of my friends who have been to israel, greeks, tell me that the only reason the Muslims hate the US is because it supports Israel.... they don't specify if Israel deserves support or not of course, and this right after telling me that the women in Egypt 'smelled' like they hadn't showered in weeks and had no hygiene.
I think that might sum up the Greeks pretty well that statement... though that's a generalization of course.
Meanwhile, I just saw this link as coincidences go.
Human rights groups say that Greece has one of the worst records in the EU for racism against ethnic minorities: Hating Albanians.
http://www.discardedlies.com/entries/2005/04/hating_albanians.php
Mike
Where the hell do you get all of those pictures from by the way? lol.. there awesome.
http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-23.htm
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/usr_doc/Anti-Semitism_in_Greece_2.pdf
If it's any consolation, the Greeks are the largest buyers of American weapons, even more so than Japan or South Korea.
The Defense Intelligence Agency predicted a potential war between Greece and Turkey by 2020. With the Turks inching closer and closer to the Chinese military for training and weapons procurement, the Greeks, at least their government, have no choice but to be on our side. As was the case in the Balkans in the 1990's, should anything happen to the Greeks, the EU's meagerly funded military power is insufficient to back their Greek comrades.
Greeks, like many South Koreans or citizens of other allied nations, can say they hate America all they want. But when it comes to crunch time and there's no military muscle to access or fall back on, as the Economist once put it, the attitude will become "Yankee go home, but take me too."