Bankrupt Greece Becomes a Major Military Spender and 'Sales Agent' for NATO

Costas Isychos, the former Deputy Defence Minister of Greece, discusses the Syriza Government's policy of expanding NATO’s military might

[yiannisgioukas]

This interciew seems to have been taken a while ago.

A forthnight ago it was leaked, and verified in the Greek Parliament, that under Syriza Greece started selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. One hundred thousand artillery bombs and hundreds of air-to surface missiles have been sold to SA since early 2015. It happened under the purview of Mr Isychos, interviewed here, who was then deputy Minister of Defence. Perhaps you could do a follow-up interview to ask him about that?

The important detail in the deal was that these weapons were about to expire, so the buyer (and the seller) knew the would need to be used straight away. The fact that since 2014 Saudi Arabia was at war against Yemen, and it was widely reported to be bombing civilians, did not deter the Syriza government from making the deal.

The cynical response of the Syriza party spokesperson, Kostas Zachariadis was chilling: 'it was preferable to sell these weapons at a profit than to waste them... in the arms trade, responsibility on the use of the weapons lies with the buyer.'

[funki]

Money is a necessity. So everybody is "scavenging" for money, doesn't matter how legitimate or immoral the deed is, indeed.

[AB-zndi]

so, greek runways make bonmbing iran easier ! go figure

[MrMooemoney]

How can Greece be a sovereign nation when they owe money to private banks. Who are these so called political parties in Greece work for the people or the banks?

[nicksofialakis]

The IMF has targeted both games at the same time. Greece has just been mugged shackled and placed in Rothschild's Vault. The next fluffy target is the roaming Turkey with two anxious hunters on top of the gorge, BRICS from East and generous IMF from West...

[johnkesich]

Join NATO and you too can enjoy an economy like Greece's.

[DokisKalin]

Interesting discussion but wish it was more to do with issues facing Greece rather than Israel all the time.

[absoluteanonomity]

One wonders how a bancrupt, non soverign country as greece is, still finds money to spend on military. Greeks shouldn't mind me for using a phrase like "non soverign". For me, if you are not in control of your own treasury, as it is the case with greece, then you are not soverign.
So the natural question to ask is; zionist kabal in charge of greek treasury, while not giving any consideration for the suffering of ordinary people on the street, seems very generous to let spending continue on military. I bet they are preparing greece for a greater war with it's neighbor(s) to finalize the demise of it faster and for good. I feel sorry for the greek people. They should have shown the middle finger to the creditors and left the european monetary fund and eu.. and start all over again with drachma. This way at least they would have a future and a country, but now, soon they won't even have a country once the kabal pulls the trigger.

[dionysislarson]

2% GDP is the min, for N.A.T.O. membership. The reason why Greece is the second highest paying member (only behind the U.S.), is because the other members haven't been meeting the basic requirement, expecting the U.S. to pick up the tab.

[progressholistic]

I thought there was an article (V? 5?) in the NATO charter : that an attack on one member was considered an attack on all members & would be so retaliated; or something to that effect, %-GDP expenditure is irrelevant (unless you're an arms dealer).

[danielscheinhaus]

Why does the questioner keep using the term "defense" spending? It's military spending. Who does he think is actually going to attack Greece?

[sahrasalim]

Oh Greece, get ready for refugee crisis.

[jaybeebee]

This guy is a soft-spoken extremist, smoothly talking in in longhand about the ME, Russia, N.Africa then sneakily slips in his hatred of Turkey for a battle that happened almost half a century ago, so it goes nearly unnoticed. They only spend 2.4% on military inventory because they're unjustly occupying hundreds of islands only a dozen miles from Turkey, but 200 miles from the Greek mainland, and have the gall to tell the Turks they can't fly/sail in their own space.