WHAT ABOUT GREECE?

Kathimerini writes that Greek prime minister Costas Simitis is happily pursuing a "median path" on Iraq. It's not particularly clear what constitutes the middle path, however: something like not being publicly allied with the French and German positions on the one hand or the British, Spanish, Italian (etc.) position on the other. Read also this wire story. See also this editorial in Katherimini. Greece is in an odd position because it is worried about U.S. influence in Turkey and thus might be considered pretty happy about U.S.-Turkish splits on Iraq, but the official government response has been muted.

As a side note, I'll never forget a story one of my ancient Greek teachers at Davidson told me about U.S. aid for Turkey: he's a Greek Cypriot, and while an undergrad in the U.S. he went home one summer to find himself in the army, fighting against Turks and Turkish Cypriots, and watching as U.S.-built fighter planes bombed and strafed his army's positions. At the end of the fighting he came back to the states and finished his degree and has been here ever since, but I remember him saying that the combination of the war experiences and the memories of the fighter planes left him feeling estranged from his classmates as well as from the U.S. to some degree.

I get sad thinking about this story but can't really articulate why.