Thursday, February 25, 2010

Lambs And Nazis

In bad times, of course, fissures appear. Thus today's news story: "Greek rescue in danger as deputy prime minister attacks 'Nazi' Germany." This is one of those headlines where you don't really need to read the article, but here goes. The context is the current Greek financial crisis, with Greece begging for a bailout from its fellow Europeans, which is to say, mostly, Germany:

Twisting the knife further, he said the current crop of EU leaders were of "very poor quality" and had botched this month's crisis summit in Brussels. "The people who are managing the fortunes of Europe were not up to the task," he said.

One banker said the situation was surreal. "How can they call the Germans incompetent Nazis and still expect a bail-out?"


Good question! Europe has been a source of cataclysmic conflict for a long time, and I don't think the continent has quite entered into the idyllic future where German lions lie down with Greek lambs.