Nik is right – all Greeks are going to support the Serbs, at least against Albanians and Croats. Serbs are Orthodox Christians. There are also blood ties.

” and Left-Wing Greeks would be outraged that the US didn’t do enough to fight the Serbs.”

What? Most Greeks supported the Serbs in both of the recent wars – Socialists the world over sympathised with Milosevic, not least to mention the Greek-Serb brotherhood.

I dunno Paul, (tongue in cheek) vaporization, at the end of a long productive life, wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

But really, the us and (apparently) the western world in general had no idea how to deal with the middle-east after the fall of the soviet union.

In fact, the us in particular has largely set themselves up for a series of bitter lessons while fighting the ‘evil empire’ with an ‘at all costs’ attitude.

It was our determination to get a ‘quick launch’ ability on Moscow that led us to befriend Turkey (and piss of all Greeks, set the stage for the Cuban embargo, etc…). The cold war also made us happy bedfellow with the Taliban, bin Laden, Mushareff (would supporting Benazir Bhutto have hurt our relationship with the Taliban?), The Shah, etc…

Oh yeah, and don’t forget about our current obsession with maintaining a petroluem-based society (is this _really_ good planning) that leads us onwards into continuing relationships with despots (and all of the resulting shenanigans).

In foreign matters the us has proven itself to be largely a nearsighted idiot that gets overly focused on its ambitions, fawns favoratism on those that can provide immediate benefit and forgets their ‘friends’ if it is convenient. In most ‘after school specials’ the us would be that pimple-faced kid that was just about to get some good ‘life lessons’

Hopefully we can accomplish that without any ‘vaporization’.

Ref: [for] “not forcing Musharraf to step down at the end of his term”.

Yikes. Pakistan is a nuclear power. In the name of “democracy” we should uphold “election” even though a possibility exists that such an A-bomb equipped regime could spell the end of humanity as we know it?

While we’re all injecting quotes, here’s mine…

“Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know”.

Yeah we’re off-topic but let me conclude by saying I would prefer my life’s demise to be caused by a method other than “vaporization”.

Mike L.:

OK, sure. Here’s one from today’s New York Times (via DanDrezner – http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001635.html ):

“Siddiqul Farooq, a spokesman for the anti-Musharraf faction of the Pakistan Muslim League political party, blamed Western countries for the situation.

“If the West does not believe in double standards and if the West believes in the democratic system, then it should also like to see the same system in Pakistan,” he said. “The West should put pressure on Musharraf.”"

Maybe “hated” (your word, not mine) is too strong. But maybe not — you have a Muslim leader blaming the West (gee, I wonder which country in particular) for perpetuating his own country’s corrupt dictatorship through inaction (not forcing Musharraf to step down at the end of his term).

Joe Grossberg: I stand by my statement. There are an infinite number of things the US (or an entity generally) could do. Generally not doing any one of them is not a reason for resentment, unless there was some pre-commitment. Please come up with some concrete examples where the US is _hated_ for not intervening.

I polled my Greek buddies (6). The universal answer to why the Greeks “hate the US” was…

“Because the US supports Turkey” (to Greeks evidently the “evil empire”).

Mike Linksvayer:

“The US could’ve not engaged in either action, and would then not be hated by either group.”

Or, perhaps, the Right-Wing Greeks would have resented the US for not supporting them against the Communists and Left-Wing Greeks would be outraged that the US didn’t do enough to fight the Serbs.

This most certainly *is* a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.

Demetri answered the question much better than your friend in Athens.

When in Santorini dont forget to eat at “Koukoumavlos” (but if you have greek friends they will arrange it anyway).

Have fun

I second Demetri’s suggestion about Nafplio. I was there just a few months ago, and it was wonderful. Stay at Hotel Kapodistrias.

And while you’re in Athens, make sure to have a meal at the restaurant on the roof of Hotel Grand Bretagne, preferably as the sun goes down. Watching the Acropolis as dusk arrives and the floodlights turn on is otherworldly. Especially over an excellent meal. Make a reservation.

Have fun in Greece!