American Greatness:
Victor Davis Hanson-
ATHENS—After Greece temporarily hosted a pair of U.S. military drones, Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos said last fall that, “It’s very important for Greece that the United States deploy military assets in Greece on a more permanent base.”
Indeed, Greece just took delivery of some 70 military helicopters that it had purchased from the U.S., and there have been discussions about basing American drones, air tankers and other military aircraft on Greek soil.
COSCO, a state-owned Chinese shipping and logistics services company, has invested more than 3.5 billion euros in renovating the historic Greek port of Piraeus, which is now the second-largest port in the Mediterranean. The Chinese brag that it will soon become the busiest. The massive renovation is part of China’s 35-year lease of two of the port’s container terminals and the Chinese purchase of a majority stake in Piraeus’ port authority.
Despite recent spats, Vladimir Putin’s Russia remains a supposed ally of Greece, given historic religious ties and the envisioned completion of a natural-gas pipeline that will supply Russian gas to energy-starved Greece.
Greece has a complicated relationship with its European Union partners after its catastrophic financial meltdown and the often Dickensian terms of reform and repayment demanded by German bankers. Yet Greece appreciates that more European Union money goes into the country than goes out, even if many Greeks resent bitterly high-handed German dictates—and being manipulated as the frontline transit center for hundreds of thousands of migrants swarming into Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
New Greek freeways are less congested and more impressive than California’s, despite the fact that Greek GDP is less than one-twelfth that of California.
During the 1970s and 1980s Greece was more or less anti-Israel (like much of Europe). Not any longer. The two countries are becoming fast friends.
Greece’s new multifaceted foreign policy might be best summed up by 19th-century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston’s famous dictum: “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”
Greece seems to have found lots of semi-permanent interests.
In other words, relatively small and vulnerable but strategically located Greece lives in a tough neighborhood with historic enemies such as Turkey and radical Islamic groups. As a window on the Mediterranean and three continents, Greece sits at the intersection of great-power rivalries between Europe, America, China and Russia.
Bah. Mexico with olive oil.
A couple weeks ago I saw a map of where around the world China was building ports or military bases (I can’t find it now, effing Google, they did this on purpose) and about 40 of them were on the African continent, both sides.
All these loons that see Russians under every bed, it’s those dang Chinese, they are by far the biggest threat.
@Aaron Burr:
Indeed.
How can you take seriously a country that stuffs grape leaves?
Mexico has been stuffing a lot more than grape leaves for decades,,,
thanks to Democrats,, always gets a pass from them, in hope for an illegal vote!
Just got off a SUNY job site in which a owned Greek construction crew did a fantastic job, they did GC and the electrical. Their legally hired carpenters were LEGAL latins who did a great trim finish out. Punch list was minimal.
Greek is my favorite food one day maybe will make it there to see the architecture and landscapes.
@ Aaron Burr and Uncle Al – perhaps you have not found the right place to have a great lamb gyro?? Poor boys…
Grape leaves are kinda mushie though…
@ghost of brig gen j glover – I would be delighted to find a place in my neck of the woods that served lamb gyros. All I have found locally is the normal beef/veal, which isn’t bad, but also isn’t lamb!
Look man, Greece ain’t got no flush terlets. The kind of stunning poverty I saw there 20 some odd years ago is only comparable to rural Mesiko.
At least in Mesiko the homeless kids have Chiclets to sell.
Burr,
Greece seems poverty-struck til you visit Egypt.
Now, THAT’S a shit-hole!
Squatters in the cemeteries – that’s pretty poor.
izlamo delenda est …