By the Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post GazetteThe United States has so far stayed out of the Greek debt crisis, but it now appears to be changing course, flirting with a Cold War-style ploy by pushing a pipeline project to steer Greece from Russian influence.
Greece has been in financial difficulty since at least 2009. For the most part, the European Union countries, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have grappled with the problem. The most recent episode is a repayment that Greece made to the IMF Tuesday of $850 million, accompanied by a warning that its financial well is now dry, despite alarmingly large payments coming due next month.
The Greek government has tied itself in knots. The electorate put into power in January leadership that has made contradictory pledges, first, not to punish the people by cutting pensions and raising taxes, while at the same time meeting the demands by various lenders that it cut benefits and hike taxes.
The United States has wisely stayed out of this melee, leaving it for the Europeans to work out. America would not like Greece to leave the European Union or the eurozone, for general reasons of order and stability. If any U.S. banks, hedge funds or other financial institutions have become involved in Greek markets, that is their problem, not the American government’s.
Now, however, the picture seems to be changing to some degree, and unfavorably in terms of overall U.S. interests. Russia sees Greece’s plight as a possible economic and political opportunity; Greece sees Russia’s interest as new money. Russia is pushing a new natural gas pipeline that would be partly built in Greece, although its prospects are still uncertain. The move has prompted an unwise, Cold War-like response from the United States — offering the Greeks an alternative, U.S.-sponsored pipeline, designed to keep the Russians out.
This does not make sense. Competing with Russia for Greece is a throwback to 1947 and the Truman Doctrine, which aimed to provide U.S. assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces. The United States should leave Greece’s problems in Europe’s hands, where they have been and where they belong.
