And here is an ironic twist in this Greek tragedy. The biggest European weapons dealers to Greece are German and French companies. In the Tsochatzopoulous scandal, German company Ferrostaal paid a fine of $150 million for its part in using bribes to clinch the sale of four submarines.
It was an open secret that Greece's military largess was for years stinking with corruption. Yet the German and French authorities did nothing to derail this gravy train. The Berlin and Paris governments continued to ply Greece with loans because the country was using the money to buy massive amounts of weapons from their manufacturers.
Today, the single biggest institutional creditors to Greece are Germany and France. Those countries stand accused of criminal irresponsibility in racking up Greece's debt precisely because so much of the money was being spent to prop up the German and French economies through lucrative arms sales.
It is a monumental irony that German leader Angela Merkel is most vehement in lecturing Greece about "living within its means." Rather than directing corrective action at the source of the problem, it is Greek workers, pensioners, the young and infirm who are being made to pay for the largess that they actually never saw.
If the Greek people repudiate the entirely artificial debt crisis, it would restore their country's economy on a sound footing. Of course, the country's bloated military will not be happy with that. The danger of a military coup is a real threat given the country's history of fascist dictatorship during the US-backed "regime of the colonels" between 1967-1974. Perhaps this is what the Syriza government is afraid of.
And, to be sure, the Troika of EU leadership, ECB and IMF will be intensely displeased if the Greek people go for the radical alternative of rejecting debt and austerity. However, in the battle shaping up, the Greek people have natural justice on their side. They should and can reject debt slavery and dictate. By doing so, Greece may redeem the meaning of "Demos Kratia" -- People Power. And what a beautiful denouement in the Greek tragedy that would be, not only for the people of Greece but right across all the debt-ridden Western countries.
Greece is hailed as the ancient birthplace of democracy. Two millennia on, it could also be the very place for its renaissance.
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