The European Union has decided to play hard-ball with Greece, giving the country until 16 February to accept its terms for additional credit. Without that credit, Greece will likely be forced to default on its debts on 28 February. Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis ended his tour of European capitals seeking additional aid, but he was completely unsuccessful. Push has become shove. The rhetoric surrounding Greek debt is quite intense:
On Thursday, US President Obama gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event in Washington, DC. In this speech, Obama cautioned against thinking about violence in the world in religious terms. In his remarks, Obama mentioned the atrocities committed by Christians during the Crusades. The comment elicited a storm of criticism from some Christian sources who accused Obama of attacking Christianity. Bloomberg ran an article describing the politics surrounding the word “Crusade.”
The US and Europe are facing a difficult decision: whether to provide lethal weaponry to the Ukrainian government to help it fend off the assaults by the Russian-speaking separatists who are being supported by Russia. The move would escalate the crisis and Russia’s response to the move would likely be quite hostile. Al Jazerra spoke with several foreign policy analysts about the wisdom of such a move. Their responses provide no simple point of view.
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