Because more pressure and awareness is better. Lots of people in the U.S. are not following this high-stakes drama. More activity and attention would push the U.S. to take a harder line with Merkel. The issue isn't whether the U.S. will have a good position or not, it's how hard the U.S. will push, how much they will care. The German government is going to push back, because they see this as Germany's backyard, not the U.S. backyard.
It's like the U.S. and Israel: when the U.S. pushes Israel on the settlements, the Israelis push back, and the U.S. says, oh well. But now when the issue is Iran's nuclear program, when the Israelis push back, the U.S. doubles down, because that's something they really care about now, keeping the diplomatic track that Bibi and his allies are trying to blow up. So, the question is whether the U.S. position can be moved from good rhetoric to really caring. I'm sure that the U.S. will push Germany hard not to push Greece out of the Euro, because that is a longstanding, deeply held U.S. position. But how hard they will push Germany to let Greece have some fiscal space to grow the economy I think is an open question. Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] (202) 448-2898 x1 On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 5:32 PM, Hinrich Kuhls <[email protected]> wrote: > Robert Naiman wrote: > > > > > Wouldn't it be cool if a bunch of economists would send a letter to > Obama > > saying that Obama should tell Merkel to allow Greece to have economic > growth? > > Why should they do that? > > > http://www.thepressproject.net/article/72299/Obama-to-Germany-about-Greece-You-cannot-squeeze-countries-in-the-midst-of-depression-VIDEO > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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