Wall Street Journal
September 19, 2011
Political instability and rebellion have stretched across the Mediterranean’s North African coastline and up to Syria, but why should they stop there? Why should they not stretch to Greece, for example?
It’s worth remembering that Greek generals staged a coup in 1967 and then ran the country as a junta. Democracy wasn’t restored until 1975. That’s not such a long time ago.
The Greek military is still a very significant force in the country. Greece spends more on its armed services as a percentage of GDP than any other European Union country–3.2% against an EU average of 1.6%, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
The day Greece runs out of money–barring yet another massive infusion from the EU, the ECB and the IMF–draws closer by the day. When bureaucrats don’t get paid, they down tools and go on strike. But what happens when the money stops flowing to the army?
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