Greece hasn’t been able to grow enough food to support its population since the Greek Dark Ages back before Plato and Aristotle. Even in the glory days of Athens that some heavily rever on this forum, they were heavily importing agricultural produce from the black sea region.
The land in Greece isnt any good for traditional farming, very mountainous. Can it be farmed, yes, but hardly easily, and not to the standard necessary. Let’s just say there is a reason why Greeks eat so much lamb and seafood.
If they broke from the EU, they would require massive food imports.
Let’s not forget, during these economic glory years, The British Empire was financially and militarily responsible for Greece post WW2… Greece was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and it sent the British spiraling into bankruptcy. We (US) had to rush in and give both money, and we sent a bunch of military advisers into Greece to help retrain the Greek military. The success in the Greek Civil War is the root behind why the US sent military advisors initially to Vietnam (before the mass escalation of troops, I’m talking the early stage) and even today in Iraq.
Greeks were so messed up, they had their Special Forces units doing very basic and mundane duties that had nothing to do with combat as they were the only units willing and motivated to do anything… which is sad, as SF units are most useful in a mountainous peninsula country like Greece.
Countries with inept militaries by default have backwards governments. I’m not talking small, I’m saying inept. A country with a small military, even if ridiculously small and not realistically capable of defending a country, will at least have plans, will aggressively train, will have scenarios in just what to do to have maximum effect. The government funding and oversight organs in the civilian government would be aggressive as well, demanding to see its money is well spent, demanding to see the troops in actions, comparing their doctrine to that of other countries.
Greece just didn’t give a fuck, and looking at it today, it continues to not care. Its military isn’t as bad, but that’s because its in NATO and the collective standards produce a minimum guideline. The government is as inept as ever.
Military is always a good litmus, because they are expensive, and require a lot of comes oversight… food, energy, housing, maintance, salary, medical care, transportation, weapons, ammunition, vehicles of war, naval ships, airforce craft, high cist of training.
You can’t just send weapons to the unit, and say “here, keep this in the armory” cause the unit will sell all but a third of it on the black market. You have to have guys checking on it, and guys checking on them. Everything gets checked and analysed. Debates in legislatures are held, which aggressively debate what’s the purpose of doing this or that. Guys get fired and promoted on how well they do.
In the US Army, officers (sadly) are not promoted on the basis of battle field success, but his well they keep their property books. The first captain I served under was a excellent commander, but didn’t pay attention when he signed over the supply roster from the previous captain. Every so often (either quarterly or biannually) the companies had to do a full inventory, and as a cold weather unit we had a lot of stuff. He discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth if equipment was missing. Took him by surprise.
That is socialism… that shocked look on his face. He fought well in Afghanistan, but this tanked him. You have no idea how many times our rooms were searched. He was eventually exiled to serve as a instructor at West Point, which is again, disturbing… only the very best should do that. He was good, but it was being used as a penal colony.
It was so bad, they later on discovered we had humvees missing. We didn’t even know we owned humvees.
But the US is obsessed with this stuff, and IRS why we always have the equipment and manpower to project force, and the supplies and financial reserves to do so, at a dependable level of competency. Not saying its always smart, or well thought out, but it has these aspects under firm control. We got to the point where we can get troops across the planet in under a day… 12 timezones.
India can now just barely project light infantry into Myanmar, and they had to walk (and crawl, but the latter was for wise tactical reasons) just to take out a couple if camps, with little support. Even this requires a moderate level of command and control, and that requires a long term degree of civilian oversight and civilian leadership. This competency is seen overall across the Indian government.
Same with US government. The Anti-Military party, spends like crazy. California is our Greece. Obama hasn’t a clue what to do with the piling debt, were facing several decades of austerity here ourselves because of him. Its no coincidence that the pro-military parties are the ones most obsessed with the economic stability, health, and wisdom. Its not so much a advocacy of warfare, as Japan has a advanced military and is pacifist, as well as Switzerland… Its what keeps the military and government on whole well practiced and green. There are a lot if lazy scroundrels attracted to the military who will fuck everything and everyone over for quick profits before leaving, and don’t care about training and providing for their respinsibilities. The offer good practice for governments to stay fit. The threats and fear if neighboring states should be motivation enough for governments to stay fit.
Greece never stays fit. It is a wild mess. Its citizens are corrupt, demanding handouts. A entire country cannot try to buck the system, and drag ass and expect the money to floe and retire early, that somehow it can all work in the end. At least, such a country would say “you know, what were doing is wrong, but even if we do fail, at least we produce enough food to feed ourselves”. They don’t. US has crazy high debt, we will soon be Greece, but we can at least say once that time comes, and half the country is out of work… Obama care implodes, etc… we can get food to everyone, regardless of how pitiful our currency is. We will survive. Why? We built our agricultural independence into our system. Everything else can be raped financially by our creditors, but our houses will still be there, and our fields will be too. Eventually we can adjust, rehouse people with what we have, and employ the agriculture and oil sectors. Only real result possible from ObamaCare.
In Greece, they don’t gave shit to fall back on.
