The diktat imposed by Germany and its neo-con vassal states upon Greece in these recent hours conjures up correctly I think the days of imperial excesses in Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth century by the western powers where servitude to the imperial powers was delivered quite literally on the barrels of the British and American gunboats that penetrated these waters.This time the gunboats have been replaced by the abstract but very real weapons of the financial asphyxiation powers of the ECB and its ability to destroy the Greek banking system and it must be said the lack of proper preparation on the Greek side to launch and defend a parallel currency as a viable alternative to what has transpired.

The former Greek Syriza finance minister, a professional economist has described the terms of surrender to Germany as another punitive crushing treaty of Versailles The Slovak finance minister has admitted that the terms are designed to crush the popular democratic uprising in Greece. Economists of many stripes concur that the crushing terms can only destroy the Greek economy and ultimately greatly discredit German leadership of the EU. Germany has behaved in a shameful manner which raises very serious questions about the viability of the Euro zone and the spectre of the collapse of the European project. When Robert Schumman,Jean Monnet and the early pioneers of the European Coal and Steel Community envisaged Europe and the common currency they had in mind an idealistic project that would replace Prussian and Teutonic authoritarianism and militarism by a peaceful movement meant to enhance the European values of humanism and mutual aid. They would be appalled by what has transpired. The immoral and amoral members of the governing councils of Europe and of the institutions like the European Central Bank and the IMF have betrayed the principles on which the original union was predicated. Greece and its poor will be wrecked further by these measures and the stain on European history will be large.The extremists in Greece of the neo-Nazi kind will be emboldened and strengthened. Sparta not Athens may emerge triumphant.