shiva2999
March 24th, 2007, 6:04:43 AM
That European countries that have actually suffered under fascism's jackboot can see what's going on and Americans can't?
Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Greece, all of who are more than familiar with the fascist mindset and identify it quite clearly.
But how do Americans react to their warnings?
The miserable old-Europe Cassandras get branded as anti-Americans.
Check out this article from two months after 9/11.
Props for the Greeks for being way ahead of me...
http://www.newstatesman.com/200111260013
11 September? A Zionist plot!
Helena Smith
Published 26 November 2001
* Print version
* Listen
In Greece, they burn US flags and jeer the minute's silence for New York's terror victims. Helena Smith on the most anti-American country in Europe
"What was wrong with those attacks," says the upright Greek businessman speaking of 11 September, "was that they didn't happen at night. If they had happened then, the towers and perhaps even the Pentagon would have been empty."
The businessman, let's call him Giorgos, has one of those pleasant, open faces. He wears a European Commission flag pinned to his lapel, and is explaining, quite calmly, how the average Athenian sees the day that changed the world.
"In Greece," he murmurs in a matter-of-fact way, "we regard this as a textbook case of David versus Goliath. America is overly arrogant and it needed to be brought down to earth. The attacks were the consequence of all its sins - Kosovo, Korea, Vietnam and Cyprus, a classic case of American double standards; 11 September was a taste of its own medicine."
In the birthplace of democracy - Nato's strategic arm in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Euroland's most recent addition - Giorgos's views are not unusual. If anything, they are rather tame.
From the moment the twin towers came tumbling down, the Greeks took a decidedly different approach to the tragedy and the ensuing attack on Afghanistan - one that, once again, highlights the divide that separates this country from the rest of the west. While London and Washington were still fretting about forging a common global front against terror, anti-war rallies across Greece offered evidence that it may have been prudent to examine the EU's inner sanctum first.
Repeatedly, Hellenes topped international league tables in their lack of sympathy for post-attack America. Fewer Greeks supported the US-led war than did Palestinians. Midway through the campaign, polls showed that eight in ten were vehemently opposed to the air strikes, fearing the quest for justice would turn into one of revenge. The vast majority agreed with Iran, and other Middle Eastern states, that they were being prosecuted solely to "promote the west's powerful interests".
The news of Kabul's fall was greeted with immediate scepticism: Uncle Sam, opined one Greek commander formerly attached to Nato, was clearly hoping American troops would establish a foothold in the country.
Over dinner that night, a Greek doctor asked me if I really believed Osama Bin Laden was truly behind the worst terrorist attack in history. After all, he noted, a nationwide poll in Greece had revealed two riveting facts: that only 29.6 per cent of his compatriots thought the Saudi-born fugitive had masterminded the attacks, and that 35.9 per cent were convinced the carnage was the work of the CIA - if it wasn't a Zionist plot engineered by Mossad (7.7 per cent).
"Why does Blair, that well-known gay, think he knows best?" the doctor inquired gruffly. "Doesn't he realise that there are some places in Europe where there has been hardly any support for this so-called war?"
In Greece, support has not only been minimal; anti-Americanism has been growing by the day.
...more...
Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Greece, all of who are more than familiar with the fascist mindset and identify it quite clearly.
But how do Americans react to their warnings?
The miserable old-Europe Cassandras get branded as anti-Americans.
Check out this article from two months after 9/11.
Props for the Greeks for being way ahead of me...
http://www.newstatesman.com/200111260013
11 September? A Zionist plot!
Helena Smith
Published 26 November 2001
* Print version
* Listen
In Greece, they burn US flags and jeer the minute's silence for New York's terror victims. Helena Smith on the most anti-American country in Europe
"What was wrong with those attacks," says the upright Greek businessman speaking of 11 September, "was that they didn't happen at night. If they had happened then, the towers and perhaps even the Pentagon would have been empty."
The businessman, let's call him Giorgos, has one of those pleasant, open faces. He wears a European Commission flag pinned to his lapel, and is explaining, quite calmly, how the average Athenian sees the day that changed the world.
"In Greece," he murmurs in a matter-of-fact way, "we regard this as a textbook case of David versus Goliath. America is overly arrogant and it needed to be brought down to earth. The attacks were the consequence of all its sins - Kosovo, Korea, Vietnam and Cyprus, a classic case of American double standards; 11 September was a taste of its own medicine."
In the birthplace of democracy - Nato's strategic arm in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Euroland's most recent addition - Giorgos's views are not unusual. If anything, they are rather tame.
From the moment the twin towers came tumbling down, the Greeks took a decidedly different approach to the tragedy and the ensuing attack on Afghanistan - one that, once again, highlights the divide that separates this country from the rest of the west. While London and Washington were still fretting about forging a common global front against terror, anti-war rallies across Greece offered evidence that it may have been prudent to examine the EU's inner sanctum first.
Repeatedly, Hellenes topped international league tables in their lack of sympathy for post-attack America. Fewer Greeks supported the US-led war than did Palestinians. Midway through the campaign, polls showed that eight in ten were vehemently opposed to the air strikes, fearing the quest for justice would turn into one of revenge. The vast majority agreed with Iran, and other Middle Eastern states, that they were being prosecuted solely to "promote the west's powerful interests".
The news of Kabul's fall was greeted with immediate scepticism: Uncle Sam, opined one Greek commander formerly attached to Nato, was clearly hoping American troops would establish a foothold in the country.
Over dinner that night, a Greek doctor asked me if I really believed Osama Bin Laden was truly behind the worst terrorist attack in history. After all, he noted, a nationwide poll in Greece had revealed two riveting facts: that only 29.6 per cent of his compatriots thought the Saudi-born fugitive had masterminded the attacks, and that 35.9 per cent were convinced the carnage was the work of the CIA - if it wasn't a Zionist plot engineered by Mossad (7.7 per cent).
"Why does Blair, that well-known gay, think he knows best?" the doctor inquired gruffly. "Doesn't he realise that there are some places in Europe where there has been hardly any support for this so-called war?"
In Greece, support has not only been minimal; anti-Americanism has been growing by the day.
...more...