This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
This Is NOT Sparta As Greece Threatens To Partially Withdraw From NATO Citing Poverty
In what is a pathetic attempt at Mutual Assured Destruction only in this case is Virtual Assured Suicide, Athens News reports that Greece, in order to demonstrate just how "serious" its fiscal condition is, will slash its defense spending in the form of support for NATO, thereby destabilizing the region even as Turkey and Syria are already on the verge of way: a development which NATO will surely be delighted by. "Greece will significantly reduce its participation in Nato and EU military missions due to the economic crisis in the country, National Defesce Minister Panos Beglitis announced on the sidelines of an informal EU defence ministers' Council held here on Friday. He said that the ministry was preparing to cut down Greece's participation in the Nato and EU missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Somalia, noting that local political forces in Afghanistan and Kosovo were anyway entering the phase where they would gradually take over control." So instead of going ahead and doing any of the austerity stuff Greece promise to enact back in 2010, which has been sacrificially pushed forward from 2015 to 2014, pretty much like what the US will need to do soon to avoid more downgrades when the next debt ceiling hike is due in a year, it will instead pack up and leave, most likely giving Turkey the impression it can do whatever it wants in the region, and why not: after all the third coming of the Ottoman Empire has been long in the making.
From Athens News:
Beglitis made it clear, however, that Greece would not withdraw entirely and will continue to maintain a small presence as long as the international missions continued to exist.
The ministers' council, held to prepare for the regular council in November in Brussels, mainly carried out a review of developments in the operations in Libya. Among the central issues was the need to reduce armaments spending due to the economic crisis sweeping across Europe.
The ministers did not discuss the tension created in the southeastern Mediterranean by Turkey's stance toward exploratory drilling for natural gas in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone. The issue is expected to be discussed at the Nato ministers' meeting in Brussels in early October.
Our only question is whether this idea came from Greece or the Troika, which will need this preemptive false flag to justify ongoing disbursements of bailout money to Greece if it wishes to preserve the euro.
»
- 7632 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Who f*cking cares about this.....
Silver 31 ... Gold 1630 ...
sweaty shirts at ZH
Back the truck up at 27 for AG. BTFD!
You are right... load up now. This may be the last time you see prices at this level.
Idea for Greece; They should trademark name and 'Greek Food' and all references to greek foods. Sue for trademark infringement and make a mint (grecian souce).
Buy now before you get priced out!
Greece had what, 2 or 3 soldiers in the NATO force?
you're forgetting about the goat bombs, for those hard to reach places!
Stand-down the yogurt missiles, Commander.
Most of the Western European members of Nato have been trimming away to irrelevance for over a decade now, as the debacle over Libya showed painfully. Couldn't even put up a meaningful effort anymore. Honestly, Nato has about become defunct, as the US SecDef recently (and rather publicly) pointed out. Let 'em go.
Just think, at -$100/day, in 3 weeks gold will be at 0! I can't imagine any other possible outcome! I guess August's safe-haven is September's pariah.
... and soiled pants.
Where are the silver bears?
Hahahahahahahahaha...and we be sweating big time!
Silver WTF??? - 13.5% what a day, those guys insane..
If it goes lower I might sell all stocks and buy Physical
on all the money.. 10$ (25%) OFF sale..
I'm still long but embarrased to admit that I'm experiencing significant shrinkage.
WB, please post some visual combat!
bought yesterday and more today. Miners and lev. etfs.
'Greece will not withdraw completely however, and made concessions to leave 1 guy with a helmet and rifle in NATO'.
Translation: We need our military at home to prepare for this weekend's default program.
Thanks...that is all...
thats odd since they just signed a mutual defense pact with Israel.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/09/05/3089230/greece-israel-sign-security-cooperation-agreement
Yeah, it really scared the shit out of Turkey. NOT
Partial withdrawal? This sounds like something a Greek would do...
Effin Banking Cartel Naked shorting Gold and Silver.
The US should withdraw from NATO, citing the lameness of European militaries.
WW II ended 67 years ago ... and we still haven't demoblized?
'The ministry was preparing to cut down Greece's participation in the Nato and EU missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Somalia."
GOOD! Greece shouldn't have been involved in the first place in these dimwitted neocon windmill tilts.
Last I checked, Obama and the Dems now support the Afghanistan mission. Neocons, are they?
Clinton got us involved in Kosovo, and KFOR operates under UN mandate. Neocons?
AMISOM uses african troops under a UN mandate. Neocons?
Neocons reject the use of international institutions to legitimize their actions, whereas liberal interventionists embrace them. Other than that, there isn't much difference. I despise both groups.
Lots of knife catchers around here
Enter RotoTraitor comment of the week
"Lots of knife catchers around here"
Spoken by the Master of "ALL in Dow 12,700 and primary buyer of TZOO at the top"
Congrats
Great idea! Bring the troops home into a jobless depression!
Troops don't get laid off. They work under a contract.
Even if you bring them home, they still get paid, but there is no cost to keep them supplied overseas. The money will stay home.
Additional troops at home will help the government with riot control. Or help the rioters lead a coup. Either way, it's a win-win for the troops.
actually silv at 30
actually silv at 30
Look at this capitulation. Selling begets selling, until it stops. When to deploy excess cash, that is the question.
they are staying in NATO so they can attend the conferences and the wargames :)
No soothing words from General Jim today??
This "War" meme is getting mangled. Just last week, the meme was that if the Euro implodes, we will have war on the continant. Now one of the waring parties is disbanding their army. So the question that begs to be asked is: who will be doing the waring.
And the answer is: Roll em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqSmiC_xHg
ZSL Bitchez!
I can say this with conviction, anyone on margin here is gone. Kaput. RIP!
Some of those Greek islands are awfully close to the Turkish mainland.
It is further complicated by the fact that Turkey is a member of NATO.
Indeed. That would make such a land grab very interesting.
The only way the Turks could get away with it is if the Greeks were to attack first...
FREE BYZANTIUM!!
The Romanians will be glad to host our bases, thanks and see you later!
after all the third coming of the Ottoman Empire has been long in the making = we are all doomed
And incidentally as a NATO member we can't really lease out our air force bases to Israel, which we've done, so that they can attack another NATO member Turkey. So sorry - we're poor and can't help ourselves, but those Israelis sure are nice. And they love our beaches and little islands too. Shalom and Opa y'all.
Maybe it would be different if the Turks hadn't told the Greeks they would not allow them to develop the natgas fields off the Greek's own coast.
I'm going to drop kick the fuckers at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/King_World_News.html
Bastards been pumping the metals non-stop!
I really don't see the problem here besides complicating our desire to control the world. After all who is going to invade Greece? Who would want the problems? Now that the Grermans are off the enslaving the population and clearing the space for the master race kick there is not a lot of upside to it. About the only place it fits geopolitically is Russian naval access to the Medeteranian but to do that effectively there are the small matters of Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. So as long as Greece is being forced to play austerity so the bankers don't have to take a loss why not save the military dough?
Just saying.
After all who is going to invade Greece?
This isn't so much about Greece itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_invasion_of_Cyprus
Seems like a sensible decision for Greece. Whofa king cares.
Didn't NATO "defeat" the "scourge of communism" some 20 years ago?
Ahhh, yes, but now we have the evil terrorist. He is every bit as threatening as the million man strong Soviet armies back by nuclear weapons.
The more I think about Greece, Europe and US the more I want to just throw up. What a travesty this planet has become.
Sell my gold. Hmmm. No way. And added a little more miners here++.
This is such a gift. Can they go lower, of course. But this is a gift for us.
Repatriating the guys who are angry, won't be paid, know how to organize militarily and shoot guns to a country that is anarchically rioting sounds like a great idea.
Just bought more silver. Thanks Blyte!
the harder you grab the more it slips. slippery greece bitches.
This is a very sensible decision for Greece. Greece has been until recently the European country with the largest military budget (thanks to its Turkey-phobia). Biggest beneficiaries of those expenditures was the German heavy industry (providing most weapons, submarines etc. To the Greeks).
A large chunk of Greece's current debt was plainly military overspending (with Germany's blessing). It was time they cut that kind of spending, for god's sake, the poor sods are broke! Give them a break.
I'll bet those Greek Cypriots who had their homes seized and their lands occupied in 1972 by the Turks will not appreciate your comment.
Who the hell is reliving 1972 still today, (besides the Palestinians/Israelis)? Those Cypriots are all senior citizens today. Life moves on.
Well fallout11, since you've asked,
For a start is 1974 and perhaps most of those senior citizens today, like my grandmother, realized that they will never see their illegally occupied homes taken from them again, and maybe it doesn't even affect me as much since I do not consider the illegally occupied part as my home since I have only been there once, after they've decided to open up the same borders I was watching, rather ironically, when I was in the army 6 years ago.
What I do care though is that now that we've started drilling in our offshore acreage with the Israelis (Noble & Delek), where huge amounts of natural gas and oil are thought to exist, and everyone says that Cyprus will become the new energy hub that will supply both Israel and Europe, Turkey's PM Mr Erdogan decided to put neo-Ottoman neo-empire plans in motion and in a more rapid fashion, since he realized that Turkey holds no legal standing whatsoever because they do not recognize Cyprus, which will assume EU's presidency in 2012, and trying to discredit legal agreements by using the Turkish Cypriot community and their "rightful" share from the profits.
That's the same reason he has embarked in a rock star tour in middle east and particularly Egypt, in order to further stir up the anti-Israel sentiment and leverage this and the Palestine bid in order to gain momentum in the periphery, despite the fact that the Arab Brotherhood does not share the same ideas regarding Mr Erdogan's and therefore Turkey's special brand of shall we say a rather toned down Islam, as much as they share the hatred towards Israel.
This, coupled with the military defence deal between Cyprus, Israel & Greece was enough to send Erdogan into a histrionic tantrum, since according to his neo imperial eminence it is unfathomable for another state to become an equal geopolitical player in the Mediterranean, regarding energy supply, much less a weak and suppressed state like Cyprus.
So now that he was repeatedly warned by the EU, US, UN & Russia and Obama in person in the UN meeting that not only he must respect Cyprus sovereign rights to explore its natural resources, which are within every universal legal accord, but he must refrain from his perpetually repeated polemic threats towards Cyprus, Israel & Greece, throwing casus belli warnings around like hot pockets, because it is an unacceptable behaviour for a EU member state candidate.
The problem is that Turkey as a NATO member, has a considerable geostrategic interest for the US policy, acting not only as a EU - Middle East bridge, but as a ground for NATO's radar installation, which ironically shares live intelligence with both US fleets and Israel despite Erdogan's opposition, and Nuclear Warheads housing. Also, Turkey's strong trade partnership with EU will make any political confrontation between the two more complicated, I think, despite Austria's opposition for their EU membership, Germany's slight reluctance and France's anti-Muslim sentiment, which some might find to be legitimate if Turkey's sheer population size of almost 80 million is taken into consideration, and from which after exempting the more secularized, affluent and modernized and urbanized bourgeois, you are left with a great percentage consisting of a largely rural, uneducated and highly nationalistic as well as conservative Muslim population, ready to flood the several EU greener pastures.
While I do not fully trust Washington's foreign policy, I do hope that they take Erdogan's gung-ho behaviour as a sign of the peripheral turmoil that will follow caused by his overinflated ego, and while it might manage to stir up the situation in Middle East and thereby affect Israel, which will mean that whoever's in Presidency will be affected by the Jewish-American lobby, I do not think that Israel will sacrifice a full military conflict with Turkey's army for the sake of small Cyprus, although their interconnected Oil & Natural Gas agreements might be sufficient incentives.
The most worrisome part is that with the shameless economic disassembling and societal destruction of Greece by its treacherous government and their conniving IMF bankers, our only military support is in a weak state despite its army's anti-government stance and admirable under the circumstances moral. Of course despite everything, Turkey's PM ordered his 3 submarines and great part of his fleet to "tour" the area, in order to throw oil in the fire and to "protect" their illegally exploring-for-oil-in-Cyprus-shores ships, from I'm guessing the non existent Cypriot navy and air force.
And now with the US 6th Fleet lead by USS Monterrey on the way along with Russia's two submarines (Gazprom claimed 2 acreages in Cyprus' 2nd auction round) in an area crowded with Turkish air force jets and Israel's UAVs, things are getting spicy to say the least.
"So instead of going ahead and doing any of the austerity stuff Greece promise to enact back in 2010..."
Are you saying it hasn't done austerity? Where are you getting your information from?
The average household income has dropped 50%
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/greek-austerity-measures-cat...
Since the austerity measures were imposed, the unemployment rate is up at least 40%, as is the suicide rate. The rich are untouched but the poor and middle class have had a drastic drop in standard of living. The austerity measures have been called the most brutal ever imposed on a developed country.
Of course the troika geniuses will always say Greece isn't doing enough. It is so bizarre. One day they say Greece is on track and they're loving it; the next day Greece is a total catastrophe and will have to start selling its territory. Troika is one big borderline personality. We can't take these folks seriously. It's a shame Greece is ruled by the biggest idiots ever to rule the country. They don't know how to look out for the country's interests. They seem to just want a pat on the head from Merkel.
I understand European anger at Greece's deception from 2001-2008. But yes, the more I read about them, the more I realize how cruel the austerity measures have been. It's bad here in America, but the Greeks have lost everything. Now they're going to suffer a brain drain and lose all their minds to UK, Canada, US, Australia, etc... It's sad to think about.
Drop kick Greece from the EU and take your lumps. Unless they are afraid that Spain along with Italy will go down when Greece does.