Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
12 October 2018
New Eastern Outlook
12 October 2018
Last week a few hundred thousand Greeks
raised their fists in protest in the streets of Thessaloniki. That
protest, and an even larger one in that followed in front of Greece’s
parliament in Athens tell us EU imposed austerity has gone too far.
These protests were ostensibly opposition to a compromise on the part of
the Greek government regarding the Macedonia name dispute. However, the reality is both foreboding and promising at the tame time. This report should astound most readers with the level of financial, military, and intellectual terrorism being exacted on a noble people.
The Real Terror – Betrayals
In a previous report
for NEO I outlined how Macedonia (FYROM) seems doomed to become just
another NATO satrap, another missile launch site in the new Cold War of
Washington. NATO wants the former Yugoslav republic to get a name change
before the generals start picking spots for bases. Meanwhile, in Greece
the people are years past fed up with being sold out at ever turn by
the radical left SYRIZA led government. This, after Prime Minister
Tsipras’ coalition government ignored the 2015 protests and went ahead
with crippling austerity measures imposed by the Germans, the EU, and
the IMF, leaves even the most liberal Greeks wobbling to the right.
Reports from Thessaloniki suggest the Macedonia “name thing” is really a
secondary consideration for most protesters. The hint of upheaval comes
as Greeks face numerous other difficulties in the midst of an economic
crisis that has been ongoing since 2010. Speakers at the rallies, and
many participants as well, spoke out against austerity, forced home
foreclosures and seizures, privatizations, and a host of other policies
that the current government promised to oppose. Or in other words,
broken promises and outright lies from SYRIZA.
As further evidence of a shift, Sunday’s
rally in Athens featured Greek composer and cultural icon Mikis
Theodorakis, who has been widely associated with the Greek left. Michael Nevradakis over at MintPress News explains
the hard truths of a SYRIZA led government adored by the IMF and
Germany, and one now testing the resolve of the Greek people. His
analysis of the whole Greek debt affair matches my own. This economic
downfall seems orchestrated, rather than some quirk of Wall Street
economic conditions. Greece is “for sale” basically, and the banking
pirates seem to care less how many Greeks rise up in protest. And this
is a dangerous miscalculation. Almost every Greek I talk to here on
Crete now realizes, that barring some truly radical change, Greece will
in no way be able to absolve itself of austerity and international
financial oversight for the foreseeable future. The sellouts of the
SYRIZA-led Greek government are busy basking in the fake-glory of a
supposed economic “success story” and Greece’s supposed exit from loan
agreements with lenders. However, the sale of Greek assets to foreign
entities, pension disasters, and the crippling taxation that every Greek
shop owner faces will not go away anytime soon. The people are already
crushed, with only Greek attitude and pride propping them up. This is
the reality. Nevradakis’ story is spot on, revealing the “fire sale” and
robbery going on at the expense of Greeks where a recent bond sale and
astounding interest rate went unmentioned by mainstream western media:
“…the bond yield (interest rate) of 4.625 percent was not only much higher than that of other crisis-hit countries in Europe, but higher than or comparable to that of such economic superpowers as Vietnam and Botswana.”
The Hidden Junta
Botswana indeed, the Greek people are being treated with utter contempt in my view. Please read this watered-down Reuters report
on a recent bill that allows the government to seize people’s assets
overdue loans and arrears to the state, for restructuring family
benefits, and for making it harder to protest. In this case the Tsipras
government sold out the Greek people for €6.5 billion euros in bailout
loans in the final bailout from euro zone finance ministers. If we
examine the history of Greece’s bailout woes a couple of things become blatantly obvious.
First, the failures of the Greek
leadership at every level stand out as the cause of the country’s woes –
and things seem to be getting worse instead of better. As an example, a
2016 Transparency International’s annual report showed that Greece 69th
among 176 countries in combating corruption, down 11 spots from 2015.
Despite what Brit and German newspapers tell us, the problem is not
Greek shopkeepers and tube riders skirting taxes that is the problem.
The “westernized” stories of Greece’s circular tax problems leave off
the fact U.S., German, and UK citizens “tweak” their civic obligations
as well. Everybody in Central Europe wants to lay the blame for Greek
problems on the little guy – when the rich predators of Europe have always been the problem. This Tufts University
(PDF) paper tells us of a corruption hamster wheel, but the author does
not moderate with comparatives. A 2011 book by Jason Manolopoulos
entitled; “Greece’s ‘Odious’ Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community,”
frames the real picture. The portrait is a familiar one – a ravaging
system of investment wolves who have commoditized money and debt.
Bleeding Greeks are now the equivalent of bovine herd milked until dry
by the financial wizards. The aforementioned author calls this aspect
“an orgy of leverage” – which is exactly what we all face today.
Secondly, the history of Greece’s economy since 1960 holds many clues as to how and why Greeks
suffer so now. Without a complete history lesson since the so-called
“Regime of the Colonels” from 1967-1974, any Greek citizen from those
times can relate the relative prosperity of the early 70s as compared to
today. I mention this junta for good reason, as the role of NATO in all
things European plays a crucial role very few even take note of today.
I’ll leave off discussing the roles of Britain’s Winston Churchill and
America’s CIA in fiddling with Greece politics. However, it’s vital for
readers to understand how Cold War anti-communist doctrine wreaked havoc
on almost all of Europe. When U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s
administration gave aid to the junta, U.S. critics of the coup included
then-Senator Lee Metcalf was critical of America providing “military regime of collaborators and Nazi sympathizers.”
The deplorable legacy left Greeks by U.S. interventionism will never be
fully understood, but the role of NATO as an occupying force on society
is my point here.
Uprising, civic dissent, and how the EU
became a perfunctory police state are not issues you’ll hear debated in
the EU parliament, now are they? And what if the mission of NATO is less
about defending against a common European external enemy like Russia,
and more about a liberal world order police action? This policy document
from NATO tells us the real reason behind Greece’s NATO ascension, and
the coming integration of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia
(FYROM). And I quote:
“The need for the NATO to be endowed with a military capability of civil police clearly emerged during the SFOR operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Europe Held Hostage
Stability Policing (SP), as NATO terms
interventionism, is the deterrent and the method of mediating
undesirable change in all of Europe, and nowhere is this a more critical
deterrent than in Greece and on the borders of eastern Europe. Reading
these documents I am reminded of SS and Gestapo missions in occupied
countries during WWII. And for those readers who believe I am delving into conspiracy theories, please read from the most recent NATO summit in Romania.
“Several efforts are underway to help meet the law enforcement gap at the international level. The UN, the OSCE, the EU are all working in various ways to generate the capacity to deploy units of civilian police on short notice.”
Finally, we must factor all the coercive
elements which have been exacted on all Europeans since the height of
the Cold War. The “indoctrination” of soldiers and citizens from Poland
around the frontiers of Russia to Turkey and Greece cannot be
understated. Generations have now been brainwashed and subliminally
warned not to buck the NATO narrative or brotherhood. Imagine the effect
of Greece’s youth having served alongside NATO brothers – the influence
on the geo-political situation cannot even be measured. The NATO
Stability Policing Centre of Excellence is situated in Vicenza, Italy –
and it’s crazy for me that the organization’s Facebook
pages are not even mentioned alongside the social network’s evidence
against Vladimir Putin’s Russia trolls. Scan these NATO pages and
discover a diabolically subversive mission to convert an Italian
officer/dad, or a Romanian gendarme into a loyal storm trooper. Yes, I
am serious.
In the end it’s easy to see the bigger
game of hegemony operating to control Europe. Factor in one or two of my
past articles about billionaire George Soros
and his subversive NGO Open Society Foundation. Take hold of the fact
European academic institutions and media have been manipulated and
converted for decades. And understand that the level of mismanagement
and corruption from Portugal around to Ukraine is the real elephant in
the Europe room. We must recognize that these systems are desirable for
the lending elites too. Imagine a Greece that is fixed and out of debt!
Where is the financial win in that for a predatory Frankfurt or
Luxembourg banker? I am hopeful that the average citizen here in Greece,
in Romania, and all across Europe might come to recognize the real
terror in this world. That day will be telling, it is sure. But the day
after will be promising indeed. Greece can start by getting her
policymakers under control, and then controlling the outside
interference. This is my view.
Phil Butler, is a policy
investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern
Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
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