Chaos in Greece amid battle to form a 'government of national salvation'

Politicians in Greece were engaged in frantic negotiations to form a government of "national salvation" on Saturday in a desperate bid to prevent debt-stricken Athens plunging into bankruptcy and possible exit from the EU.

As Europe's leaders looked on nervously, embattled prime minister George Papandreou visited head of state president Karalos Papoulias to ask to form a broad-based transitional administration that could navigate the country out of its worst crisis in modern times following a week of high political drama.

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In Greece's bitterly divided political scene forming such a government will not be easy. The battle lines between left and right, shaped historically by a brutal civil war and military dictatorship, remain deep. Papandreou's offer was immediately shot down by the conservative main opposition party, who instead repeated calls for snap elections to be held immediately, a step described as a "disaster" by the socialist premier
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But a range of smaller groups, including the populist far right Loas party, struggled behind closed doors to overcome differences with the express purpose of creating a government that could secure broad approval for the Greece's latest EU-IMF sponsored aid package and avert financial catastrophe.
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Joining the growing ranks of pessimists, Greece's pre-eminent observer of political affairs, professor Konstantinos Tsoukalas, said his greatest fear was that the situation had become "uncontrollable. Everything is so fluid, so unpredictable. The whole game is open and quite dangerous," he told the Observer. "I am scared of many things. Of Greece being pushed out of the EU under very inauspicious circumstances and what effect that might have, of possible violence erupting and the possible authoritarian reaction to it, and of the Greek political landscape, which is open to all possible conceivable developments. I can't remember a time like this, in Greece or elsewhere."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/greece-eurozone-crisis-papandreou

US-backed and US troops and the Communists there.

We could return to something very ugly.

This morning, I was thinking about the geographical reality of this economic crisis.

The most indebted countries are those on the periphery of Europe starting with Iceland, moving down to Ireland, then Spain, across to Italy and finally, Greece.

If you were to attempt to encircle the Middle East, these are the countries in which you would want to place your military fortifications.

Hmmmmm. Will there be a trade-off? More military bases for some debt forgiveness? I think we already have quite a military presence in Italy and these other countries, but it is always worth trying to think in the way a military strategist might think.

If Iran were targeted, then Iraq and Afghanistan would be ideal points for military installations. But a very, very strong presence in the Mediterranean and Northern Atlantic would also be very important.

Just trying to understand things a little better.

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Ireland was recently separated from the UK, and the banking crisis there resembled that in the UK. Booming house prices, relaxed mortgage lending standards, and adoption of the British banking model. Iceland also aspired that Rekjavik would replace London as the center of bucanneer finance.

Portugal has had a long relationship with Britian. Its where the British importers go to get their port, after all. There has been some closeness since the Napoleonic Wars.

Spain lept at the chance to put up second homes and retirement villas for Brits on the Costa del Sol. They also enjoyed a housing and mortgage lending boom that was at least partly fueled from London.

As for Greece? Well where did Prince Philip hail from? Greece has been a prized piece in the Mediterranean game between Britain, Turkey and Russia for quite a while.

Italy? It's just being Italy. Didn't they formerly change governments annually.

"It is not impossible to govern Italians. It is merely useless." Benito Mussolini